Does a police officer in North Carolina have to have his blue lights on in order to search a vehicle? Question: My girlfriend and I were sitting at a boat landing around 11pm one night. We were there talking about work because we work together. A police cruiser pulled into the boat landing & shined the spotlight on to my vehicle, a red Ford Ranger, Then proceeded to turn around & drive off. A few minutes later the cruiser comes back. This time the cruiser pulled up to the rear driver's side of my truck, shining the spotlight on us once again. However no blue lights were ever turned on. The officer exits his vehicle & makes his way to my truck. I rolled my window down & the officer says "Howdy what are you guys doing down here?" To which I replied "we're just sitting here talking." The officer then proceeds to ask for identification, which we both furnished. This is the 5th or 6th time we have been harassed by police at this location. The officer replies "hold tight I'll be right back." The license check took longer then normal which lead me to believe the officer was trying real hard to find something to get us for. As the officer is taking his precious time another police cruiser appears and parks to the right of the original officer. The original officer returns & gives us our drivers licenses back. After which the officer proceeds to ask me if I had been drinking & I said "no, well yeah I had a 24oz at around 7pm" To which the officer replied "Mind if I search your vehicle" As soon as he said that two thoughts went through my head, the first was "No you may not" and the second was "well if I say no he will say he smelled alcohol & he'll search anyways." So I said "no go ahead" because it's more intelligent a move to let the officer do whatever he wants and then take it up in court later. The officer then asked me to step out of the vehicle. Upon stepping out he says "I'm going to pat you down just to make sure you don't have any weapons" I informed the officer that I had box cutters for work in my right pocket & another knife in my left pocket. He then proceeds to confiscate the items & pat me down. Upon not finding anything on my person the officers turned their attention to my truck. The officers asked "is there anything in the vehicle I should be concerned about" I informed the officer I had a "bowl and a little bag of pot" (it was so small it wasn't even measurable). The officer along with the second officer then start to go through my truck. Which I might add they totally disorganized everything in it and didn't have the common courtesy to put anything back where it was. While the search was going on a third police cruiser arrived & parked next to the second one. The officers found my pill bottle which I keep with Allegra, Motrin, zantac, & aleve. They asked me about the contents of the bottle & asked what all the pills were to which I replied probably motrin, zantac, & allegra. They continued searching my vehicle. And asked "what were yall doing? getting freaky out here?" I did not appreciate that comment nor did my girlfriend, but I replied "No we were sitting here talking, it's Goldsboro the only places to go are here or the walmart parking lot" Upon conclusion of the search the original officer asks me for my license. And I comply. He then makes his way to his cruiser. While me and my girlfriend stand outside of my truck. The second officer walks over to the third cruiser as the original officer is in his car writing me a citation for the paraphenalia. As we are waiting, the officer is taking a long time, I motion to all of the officers that I have a question. My girlfriend was freezing and without a coat because it was in the truck, so I asked if she could put her jacket on because it's cold and the second officer replies "yeah sure." As we are still standing there waiting, at least 10 minutes later the second cruiser backs up nearly to my drivers side truck door. With both drivers windows of the cruisers facing eachother. They conversate for another 5 minutes or so and the second officer proceeds to exit his vehicle and approaches me and asks if I had been drinking and I replied "yeah around 7pm I had a 24oz" And the officer then asks me to take a breathalizer which I complied. The breathalizer turned up .01 . The officer then returns to his vehicle and stays there. The original officer then gets out of his car and approaches me informing me that he wrote me a citation for the paraphanelia and not the marijuana. I said "great this is going to fuck up my career" and the officer replied "Well if you weren't doing dumb shit like this it wouldn't fuck up your career" The officer then tells us to have a nice night and turns to walk away. I said "can I ask you a question?" And the officer reluctantly stops and says "yes" I said "what was the probable suspicion that lead to your probable cause to ask me to search my vehicle?" And the officer replies "what?" with a sarcastic tone kind of like he didn't like that I knew that. He replied "you gave consent" I said "If I hadn't you would have just found a reason
to search me anyway I'm not naive" And the officer said "what?" So I said "you have to have probable suspicion leading to probable cause that leads to you searching my vehicle, what was it?" To which the officer oh so nicely said "I don't need you telling me how to do my job" And turned and walked away. My thoughts were "and I don't need you screwing my night up. my girlfriend and I are sitting at the river not bothering a damn soul you ran our licenses, as many cops have done before you, and nothing turned up but you want to come screw with us, that's rich." But I kept quiet and watched the two remaining officers pull away. Upon leaving the Sam Casey Bridge area I noticed a similar police cruiser passed me and pulled into the boat landing where we just were. I don't know if The officer was trying to come mess with me some more or not I was very unnerved by the whole ordeal. It's a big jump from "I smell alcohol" to "can I search your vehicle."
Answer:
First question, no there doesn't need to be blue lights. He identified himself as a police officer. As citizens you have the right to refuse a consent to search. You could have done so. However, in NC there a statutory laws that allow an officer to search without consent such as plain view and plain smell. If an officer smells Marijuana in a car or see's some in a car it can be searched without consent. Also you told the officer you had a pipe and pot in the car. So, there is his PC. Whether he charged you with it was totally up to his discretion.
Also someone posted you need a search warrant, that is not true. The search warrant really only applies to a house. The vehicle is mobile and does not fall under the same guidelines. There are a few exceptions. All of this can be found under the NC General Assembly web site.
Not all cops are duesch bags. We have a job and a family to feed. If we never inforced any laws or wrote any tickets we wouldn't have a job. That doesn't mean we don't give breaks.
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