Just got a ticket for this.

[sbergman27]

I don't think that this is a case of it, but... a few times during the last few years I've been stopped on the Interstate for reasons which were obviously bogus. A Kansas HP officer stopped me a week or two ago, asking if my tag was expired. It was a temporary Oklahoma tag from the dealer, reading the purchase date of "02/25/10" and I didn't even have the paperwork to get a real tag yet. I noted that he was careful not to *say* it was expired, but to ask. I told him I'd just bought the car a couple of weeks ago, and he lamely explained that in Kansas they put the expiration date on the tag. (Hello? How long have you been a highway patrolman in our neighboring state of Oklahoma? And in all that time, I'm the first person with a new car from Oklahoma that you've stopped? Even though you are claiming that it's the soul reason you stopped me? And you look about 45 years old?)

And then the questions started. Where are you coming from? Where are you headed? Have you done any drugs or alcohol today? (It was 10:27 in the morning.)

Eventually, it appeared that the business had concluded. He started to walk away. But then, he turned... and I swear this felt just like an old Columbo episode... he asked the expected question: "Can I have a look in your trunk?"

I'm a male driver traveling alone, so I must be carrying drugs, you see. This happened to me a couple of times before. So I looked up just what my rights were. They can ask. I can refuse. So I refused. (Actually, that's what I did the two previous times, but it was on instinct and not knowledge.)

Now, understand that I didn't have anything more interesting than dirty underwear in the trunk. Any of those times. I simply choose not to do recreational drugs or transport them. But it is just plain *wrong* to stop people on bogus pretense, and then prey on the victim's presumed ignorance of his rights to intimidate him into letting you conduct a search.

So we talked political philosophy for a while. Really, we did. I couldn't believe I had the nerve to fence with a highway patrolman like that, but this third attempted violation of my rights and privacy really had me ticked.

( And yes, a lot more than even my friend Brian, in this forum, has managed to do. :-P )

What it finally came down to was that he admitted that he couldn't force me to allow the search. But... he could force me to wait for a K9 unit to arrive. I told him fine. If that's what we have to do, then fine. It's still wrong. But fine. He said it might take a while. Maybe 30 minutes. (He waited for my reaction.) I said fine.

He went back and talked to his buddy. After a while, he came back and said that the K9 unit was 30 minutes away and that he wasn't going to detain me any longer. I told him I appreciated that. And put out my hand to shake. He said that "everyone" said what I had said. (I have difficulty believing that real drug traffickers made exactly the arguments I did, or as well. But perhaps that's just vanity.) He shook my hand, and I looked him in the eye and told him, in as sincere a voice as I can manage, that there really *wasn't* anything of interest in my trunk. I didn't do it, but I probably should have asked him to think about that sometime when he had chance. But I was rattled. And my nerves have limits.

I was glad to be on my way.

-Steve

Edit: One really strange thing that I forgot to mention is that while he asked me if I had insurance on the car... he never so much as asked me for my driver's license or proof of insurance.