Ask Lemmy

I’ve had my car searched before. It was unlawful.

This was over 20 years ago when it happened. I was about 19 at the time and in college. The cop ordered me to sit on the curb while he tore up my car. I was a dude with long hair at the time and when he pulled me over for the tinted windows he said that he, “saw shake in the backseat.”

The shake in the backseat was fiction.

Car got torn up, he said he thought my eyedrops were GHB and that he wanted to test them. I told him that’s fine.

He came back to me after a few minutes and said that his test kit is expired and that he was going to call someone else out to test it.

Second cop comes up, he’s less of a dick than the first guy. Goes to his trunk, fucks around, determines his kit is also expired.

A third cop comes out. Also, less of a dick than the first guy. They test my eyedrops and determine they are eyedrops, not GHB.

First cop resumes tearing up my car.

First cop asks me, “where are you going?”

I tell him I’m on my way to work.

He asks me if I am in school. I replied, “yes, UCF.”

He asks, “what are you studying?”

“I’m a junior in the pre-law track with a minor in criminal justice.”

He then decided he was going to “let me go.”

The whole time this is happening there’s an older dude with long grey hair sitting across the street with a couple of grocery bags watching the whole thing. Cops asked him what he was doing a couple of times and he would tell them he’s watching what’s happening on the walk home from the grocery store. After the cops were gone, and I was doing my best to reassemble my car, he came by to say he was going to be a witness for me in case something went down. He went on to explain how he was a Vietnam vet and when he got back to the states he had been arrested for smoking a joint, and has subsequently hated cops ever since. He then told me his son is a lawyer and if I needed help with this scenario to get in touch.

Awesome guy. He was 100% the shit.

The second and third cop were pretty reasonable for cops.

I hope the first cop ended up getting repeatedly gang raped in a prison.

Yes. I have been thrown against a wall and very intimately frisked by police for looking at them wrong.

But - that was in LA when cops there were basically just a well armed gang. I've never experienced anything that crazy since.

Most of the searches I’ve gone through have been less than lawful. I don’t think most lawful officers spend their days doing stop and search. Policing was different 20 years ago, haven’t had problems with the police in almost 10 years

Important context: White male 20something, big expensive sedan, Early 2000s YMMV.

On the highway in the Deep South United States. Pulled over for speeding. Police wanted to search the car. I refused, they called in a K9.

I was pulled to the side of the road and sat down in the grass while we waited for the dog. Bunch of other officers started rolling up and just hanging out expecting what I can only imagine to be the biggest bust in a while.

The K9 got a hit and they searched the entire car. They found a glass pipe buried in an old cigar box in the back of the car in a book bag. The cops were absolutely and completely confused. “There has to be more, the dog woulda never hit on this if there wasn’t more.” The cops kept searching.

I wasn’t handcuffed or anything, someone was just watching me. A pipe was a misdemeanor where I’m from, but jail time/probation where I was stopped.

After an hour of searching they found nothing else and handed me my pipe and box and told me to throw it in the woods and to leave. Wasn’t worth the paperwork.

Absolutely not an issue, but I'm not living in the US, so we have real police, not just cops.

I had a large bag with a white powder on the passenger seat, but they were probably a bit disappointed that they did not catch a drug lord. It was just sodium alginate to make ice cream.

Never searched other than at airports security check.

But I have been questioned by airport security guards outside the airport.

I was at my favourite photo spot by the airport, it was evening, late summer in Sweden, there had been an gorgeous sunset, with aircrafts landing directly into the sunset.

Anyway, I was almost done and wanted to take a few more photos of the next aircraft coming into land.

The photo spot I was at was outside the fence but among the approach lights, it is a very popular spot to watch aircraft.

Anyway, as I am standing there with my camera on a tripod, waiting for the next plane, I see two small cars with emergency lights comming from opposite ends of the road, stopping by the barrier to stop cars from driving up among the lights, two guards approach me.

And I stand there, overweight, wearing a linnen shirt and linnen shorts, with a camera on a tripod, and before they could say anything, I just asked innocently "Hi, have I done something wrong?".

They were clearly not really sure and responded in a slightly sheepish tone "We are not really sure..."

I explained that I was just about to take some last photos before heading back to the bus to go home.

There wasn't much more to say, I packed up my things and walked back to the bus stop.

Second to last time I visited Spain, I was selected randomly for an extra check at the airport as I was traveling home to Sweden, they swabbed my jacket and my backpack, they were perfectly polite and professional.

2 years ago I went for a walk at night and marked police car pulled up by me, they got out of the car, asked for my ID, asked a couple of questions, searched me and left.

The whole interaction was pretty short and they were really proffessional.

(This was in Europe).

Yes, in the US, at an airport, I was selected for additional screening by a TSA agent. The agent put on gloves and patted me down. He had me extend my arms out and said he was going to check my waistband. When he got around to the back, he shoved a finger down my ass crack and wiggled it, then continue on. It took half a second. My mind blanked.

I called to make a complaint the next day but got nowhere. Too late, too "minor", not enough details or evidence from me. I was told it didn't really happen, because if it had I would have spoken up in the moment.

If I am ever selected for patdown again, I intend to ask for an agent of the same gender as me, to have a supervisor observing, and cameras recording.

Whitey here. I once got stopped by border patrol at an immigration checkpoint on the freeway. They had me pull off to the side, pulled all the shit out from under my seats, out of the door pockets, etc. Opened the trunk and took everything out. Brought a dog over. Then said I was good to go. Took me a little to get everything put back in place.

Last time I was stopped was flying back after taking a solo surf trip to Central America. They just couldn't handle that I went by myself. Took me into a little room at the airport. Took my boards out of my board bag, emptied my carry-on and suitcase, then tried to grill me about what I had been doing. I had a 5 hour layover, so I wasn't overly concerned. Just seemed so stupid.

I didn't get searched, but I did get pulled over once and interrogated for about 20 minutes while the cops tried to dig up some reason to ticket me. This was during Obama years, I'm Hispanic and was driving a beat up car.

The cops implied that I had been drinking (false), I had been on a party boat (also false, I was on a transport ferry and couldn't even go inside because of my dog), and that my dog was dangerous (she was asleep on the passenger seat), among more.

A cop once asked me to shake my backpack to make sure there were no graffiti cans in there. Obviously there weren’t.

Now I’m involved a bit in activism get searched on the regular. It’s mostly procedural, I have the privilege of being not really considered a criminal.

I was randomly selected for extra screening at the airport twice in one trip. That is about it.

My brother, not me, so I don’t know all the details ……

He was buying cars at auction, then fixing them up to sell. He took one on a road trip and got stopped in Ohio because he was profiled (white 300z with blacked out windows) as a drug dealer (and probably speeding). They emptied his car and threw everything on the ground. When they didn’t find anything, they impounded the car and dropped him at a bus station. He had to go back to Ohio a few weeks later to get his car back and found it undrivable because they tore apart the interior and slashed the upholstery.

Yes, dosens of times.

I grew up in eastern europe and things work differently there.

Oftentimes the cops would fish for bribes. Cops would pick you up on the street/stop you in traffic and search you/your car/whatever in hopes of finding something to hook onto and escalate the situation further and put you in a legally difficult situation.

Then they would generously offer that they can make it all go away if somebody from your family comes and brings X amount of money.

This didn't happen just to me, in most countries of the former eastern block that's just a fact of life.

In Japan I got stopped, asked for my documentation, and asked to empty my pockets once. Was about to fly back to the US within a day or two and was trying to use up all the loose change I had accumulated during my 3 months. I guess a passing cop thought it was weird when I was counting it up outside (didn't want to do it inside in line and hold everyone up).

Later, after living in Japan several years, got asked for ID, everything taken out of my pockets, and my backpack searched. I had gone from a bar to the convenience store and was headed back to the same bar. It was humiliating and infuriating. I've never been an English teacher, but I can't imagine how that must feel to be a teacher and have the kids or parents go by. They had apparently received a tip that there were drugs in the area so were searching people. Apparently not only foreigners, as I ran into a Japanese guy who got the same treatment. They were polite and all but it was incredibly violating and basically put me off from wanting to interact with law enforcement here again (and I had previously turned in lost items to the closest police box on two separate occasions for people to claim).

I was for stuff that is so mundane I don't feel like typing it all. I was profiled for driving a cheap car at 2am in a nice area. I'm super white in the worst kind of privileged way, like tall, broad shoulders and can easily turn my slight southern accent on and off. I refused to let them search the car on principal alone, so they did a light search of my person. There was an issue with my license that let them do whatever to search me, but I know exactly what to say. By that I mean I know better than to say anything or interfere with a cop. They are not a judge and whatever they do is their own thing.

The cop made up that my tag light was out. I took pics the next day including all of the original DOT markings on the lamp and included a newspaper in the background with the date because that is enough for a court to accept the date in question. I then brought my business license, business cards from two businesses, and a picture of my old shop to show I am a professional auto body painter. I then testified that the vehicle was unaltered from the night before I was pulled over and that it was in full working order as it was originally designed and equipped. The judge dismissed my ticket, told the cop to approach the bench, and for me to leave the courtroom first. I did as instructed. A few minutes later the very pissed off cop came storming out of the courtroom and left immediately. I have no clue what was said or what happened, but it felt good to see it.

Cops can say anything. You must comply with anything they tell you to do, even if it is illegal. Cops are not judges. If they break the law, you must be able to testify precisely how and what they did for the whole incident. They get home field advantage so you have no room for error or questionable conduct. The trick is to know your rights and give them no room to maneuver. Never roll your window all the way down. If you are instructed to exit the vehicle, do so after rolling up the window, removing the key, and locking the door behind you. Never talk or volunteer any information whatsoever. When you're pulled over, put both hands either on the steering wheel, or better yet, put them palm up at the window like anyone that is carrying a legal concealed weapon is supposed to do. You will be asked about a concealed weapon at which point to tell them what you do or do not have and that you are only doing your best to put them at ease for their safety. When they must start off testimony with that detail, you greatly diminished their home field advantage with a double play out of the gate.

Only things like airport security, or when going to music festivals or other events, they'll (sometimes) check you for weapons.

Lived in 4 different countries in the past decade, all in the EU.

I was freshly 21, still living at home. My parents and sister went on vacation, I decided to stay home, wasn't really interested in their vacation.

I had a couple friends over one night, sat around the fire pit, drank a few beers, etc. nothing too crazy, and it went off without incident.

Then like 2 days later 2 detectives showed up at my door. One from my town, one from the next town over.

My first thought was that this was the weirdest, most delayed noise complaints I'd ever heard of (up until that point in my life anyway, as fate would have it I now work in 911 dispatch and nothing surprises me anymore, if someone called in a complaint about a party that happened 2 years ago that probably wouldn't even be the dumbest call I got that hour)

That turned out to not be the case.

Instead they were asking about a second cousin or some such relative of mine. He'd apparently been breaking into cars and they were trying to find him.

I've never met the guy, we don't really associate with that side of the family, but I know them by reputation, they're a bunch of lowlife assholes. My extended family is fairly large, and our last name is kind of unique. Someone else they had asked in their investigation basically said "I don't know where he is, but there's some [my last names] that live in [my neighborhood]"

They asked if they could come in to make sure he wasn't there and we weren't holding stolen property for him

I thought about telling them to pound sand and to come back with a warrant, but I was about to go to work and I didn't particularly want them to come back when I wasn't there and shoot my dog. My family is also about the most boring, law-abiding bunch you can imagine so I begrudgingly let them in and walked them through the house.

The one detective was really giving me the third degree over everything, the other one was pretty chill. I don't think it was a good cop/bad cop act, now that I work on the police side of things, that's just kind of those two officers personalities.

Couldn't reach my parents or sister on the phone while this was going on. My mom was pretty livid about it (rightfully so) and called and gave the two of them an earful when they were back home.

The cooler cop (happened to me the one from the neighboring town) was pretty apologetic about it. Said that he could tell right away that we weren't involved. We're not exactly unfamiliar faces around that town, we're probably there more than the town we lived in, and despite the other branch's bullshit we have a pretty decent reputation. My mom worked at the elementary school there and my dad worked in their wastewater treatment plant, and apologized for the other cop being a dick.

Other cop was kind of a dismissive dick about it.

Not sure if they ever caught up with him about that, but at one point I found his Instagram and at least one of his pictures was clearly taken on the front stairs of the county courthouse.

There's a few things you could potentially take away from this. There's an ACAB angle for sure, cool cop didn't exactly do anything to keep the other guy from being a dick. There's also an angle of picking your battles, it was a lot easier for me to just cooperate than to try to bang on about my rights, ask for a warrant, etc.

Overall though, this was just kind of an interesting footnote to my day.

Other than airports or bag checking to get into events, no. Ironically though I once accidently brought a pocket knife to a big event because they checked bags but not pockets.

i just had both sides of my sack and my ass felt up by TSA

even after removing my shoes, my belt, and going through their backscatter machine

and now my wife is mad at me for being vocally unhappy about it to them

I worked in a high school for a number of years where my role was to manage things like after school programming, spring break trips, and certain things during the school day. We would also do weekend adventure trips when possible. At one point during this, I had an awful roommate who was into a lot of illicit substances.

During my time living with said roommate, I took students on a two night backpacking trip over the weekend. I came back to see that my room had been (from my perspective) ransacked. I could not reach my roommate, and decided that one of their drug buddies may have robbed me. Later that evening, roommate came back and I learned them and a friend got too wild, cops were called, and a search was performed on the entire apartment. Including my room. Nothing was found in my room, but I had a lot of putting away to do. At least I was not robbed, I guess.

My landlord called me the next day to tell me they were called by cops for consent because I was unreachable, and landlord knew I would have nothing to hide, but felt terrible and began immediate eviction on roommate.

Only time I was searched was in the Fall following 9/11 coming back from a hunting trip. Got pulled aside at the border, presumably because I was a teenager in a new pickup, and searched by US National Guardsman with automatic rifles.

Their leader came up to me while I watched 4 other guys diligently search every accessible crevice in the cab, underside and wheel wells. He seemed confused why I had been set aside for search. I shrugged and just said "he pointed so I pulled over" Took 10 minutes tops and they didn't damage anything (thank goodness. They could have taken knives to the cushions). Haven't had a problem at the border since. FTR white Canadian.

My advice? Don't be rude, and don't assume they have a bone to pick with you. If you are or do you WILL have a problem and people can cry 'rights' and 'lawsuit' all they want but I for one would rather avoid BS than antagonize. It is possible to assert your rights and not be an asshole. Thread that needle.

Security screening in Equatorial Guinea. Turned out the hotel had booked the president and this riffraff offshore crew at the same time. This was fine provided that we were OK with being searched for weapons or anything deemed suspicious.

Full pat down plus luggage search, nothing too major. A coworker of mine had a pair of binoculars confiscated, that's all.

Many physical body cavity searches are also digital.

Bro are you okay?

Worst I've had is cops searching all my pockets and bag when I got arrested, I guess I consented? It was mostly fine, largely because I'm white tbh