Well I was out tonight, probably when I shouldn't have been. I had a few drinks and probably should have gone straight home. Well when I was on my way home I saw a patrol car behind me, I went out of the way and a around a few blocks to determine if he was really going to follow me and he did. He decided to pull me over about 1-2 blocks before I could get on the highway and head home ( be out of town in 2mins).

He hit the lights and I pulled over, I shut the car down, and got out my paperwork. When he asked for it I gave it to him, and asked why I was pulled over, he said my rear license plate was unclear (nonsense) and that I was going to fast. (which I wasn't because I saw him, and made sure I obeyed the speed limit). I said ok, and let it go. He came back and said I had 55 pts. (which I do) but all from years ago. I told him this, he agreed and decided to let me go home. When I was about to pull away another officer showed up. I asked what was going on, and the 1st officer said that the other officer must have wanted me for something else. The second officer says he saw me "driving like a maniac" past the police station (all the way across town). I told him I wasn't even in that part of town. He said " So your calling me a F'in liar" I realized there was no upside to this, so I said, no I am not going to argue with you. He said your F'in right your not. and they walked away. A few mins later the first officer came up and told me, its ok just go home.

Yes, things could have been a lot worse, I was wrong for driving when I was. But this just really annoys me that the 2nd officer came along and tried that BS. I am so glad that the first officer was decent and some what honest.

I was completely polite/honest and I hate to say it but (caucasian). I hate to think what would have happened to someone else.

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"what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul"

quote Originally posted by Gecko: ...I was wrong for driving when I was...

Are you serious?!
Since when are were under martial law/curfew?

But you're right. The first one didn't recognize your car and was checking you out. (The license plate story was BS, and everyone knows it. Doesn't matter. It was an excuse.)
The second one was an ass. Prolly screws his own siblings.

Yeah. Just like anything else. You have good ones and bad ones. We had a guy show up for work one Saturday morning and we had no idea who he was. He didn't speak a word of english either. We ended up having to call the cops because one of our other employees said that he was drunk. This was supposed to be my day off. When I got there, I laid out what little spanish I know and found out his name and he was doing ok. As it turned out, he wasn't drunk, he was just in the wrong place. By the time the cops finally arrived. For some reason, three. We just wanted to get the guy where he was supposed to be. The cops checked him out and he had all of his papers in order. But two of the three agreed with us and just wanted to get him to the right place. But the third, a young kid itchin' for action, wanted to haul him off to jail. I figured no harm no foul. He was just supposed to up the road on an apartment project. Someone just either gave him bad directions or he misunderstood. He was here legally. So why, unless we were to press charges for trespassing, haul him off? I could see that the younger cop just hadn't been there long and hadn't matured yet. So that day, we had two cops with their witts about them and one with his finger on the trigger waiting for something to happen. Then you get some of them who just never mature.

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Whade' "The Duck Formerly Known As Wade" Duck
'87 GT Auto
'88 Ferrario
'84 Indy

quote Originally posted by Raydar: Are you serious?! Since when are were under martial law/curfew?

quote Originally posted by Gecko: Well I was out tonight, probably when I shouldn't have been. I had a few drinks and probably should have gone straight home.

I think you missed part of his post in your quote.
He made a decision and regretted it, it could have been a lot worse.

nope - generally speaking - if you are caucasian - cops aint so bad.
I know white folk dont like to hear this - but it is very true.
africans NEVER get to just "move along". in fact, they dont even get to meet the officer until ANOTHER patrol car shows up for backup. at least around here. it even has a violation name now: DWB - driving while black.

you can call it BS all ya like - but just come by, and sit on the corner and watch it happen. yes, young drivers will get some hassle too, but nothing like negros. pulled over wholesale. especially if there is more than one in the car.

but, anyways - nope - I be a white boy, and cops are grand.

quote Originally posted by Pyrthian: nope - generally speaking - if you are caucasian - cops aint so bad. I know white folk dont like to hear this - but it is very true. africans NEVER get to just "move along". in fact, they dont even get to meet the officer until ANOTHER patrol car shows up for backup. at least around here. it even has a violation name now: DWB - driving while black. you can call it BS all ya like - but just come by, and sit on the corner and watch it happen. yes, young drivers will get some hassle too, but nothing like negros. pulled over wholesale. especially if there is more than one in the car. but, anyways - nope - I be a white boy, and cops are grand.

Ok, that is complete crap. If it were true I wouldn't have 4 tickets on my record for 3MPH over the speed limit. I have never been "let go". If I get pulled over I get a ticket. I am never rude to the officer. I am all "yes sir, no sir". But if those lights come on I am guaranteed a ticket. I got pulled over on the interstate last week, and I did absolutely nothing wrong. I had made sure I was doing the speed limit, using turn signals the whole lot. I seen a cop sitting on the side of the road so I definitely made sure I was minding my P's and Q's. As I went by the cop I glanced at him and that is all it took. Next thing I know my car is being searched and there is 4 highway patrol cars behind me.

I did not consent to the search since I believed that they had no probable cause to search my car. Of course they got a warrant which I think is total BS. How can they get a search warrant without probable cause? So they begin tearing my car apart, keeping me on the side of the road for 2 hours and they find nothing. That would be because I have done nothing wrong. The cop said well if you have nothing to hide why not consent to a search. I told him because you have no business doing a search on my car when I have done nothing wrong in the first place. He said you weren't wearing your seat belt. I said yes I was, and he retorts you calling me a liar. And he wrote me a ticket for a seat belt violation.

Since when does not wearing a seatbelt give the cops the right to search your car anyway?

I've had a few situations where the cop was a REAL A-hole. I had one where he was "ok".

I try to avoid them, whenever possible.

quote Originally posted by Pyrthian: you can call it BS all ya like - but just come by, and sit on the corner and watch it happen. yes, young drivers will get some hassle too, but nothing like negros. pulled over wholesale. especially if there is more than one in the car.

quote Originally posted by fieroluv: Ok, that is complete crap. If it were true I wouldn't have 4 tickets on my record for 3MPH over the speed limit. I have never been "let go". If I get pulled over I get a ticket. I am never rude to the officer. I am all "yes sir, no sir". But if those lights come on I am guaranteed a ticket. I got pulled over on the interstate last week, and I did absolutely nothing wrong. I had made sure I was doing the speed limit, using turn signals the whole lot. I seen a cop sitting on the side of the road so I definitely made sure I was minding my P's and Q's. As I went by the cop I glanced at him and that is all it took. Next thing I know my car is being searched and there is 4 highway patrol cars behind me. I did not consent to the search since I believed that they had no probable cause to search my car. Of course they got a warrant which I think is total BS. How can they get a search warrant without probable cause? So they begin tearing my car apart, keeping me on the side of the road for 2 hours and they find nothing. That would be because I have done nothing wrong. The cop said well if you have nothing to hide why not consent to a search. I told him because you have no business doing a search on my car when I have done nothing wrong in the first place. He said you weren't wearing your seat belt. I said yes I was, and he retorts you calling me a liar. And he wrote me a ticket for a seat belt violation. Since when does not wearing a seatbelt give the cops the right to search your car anyway?

If your stop played out exactly like you say, you should contact the ACLU and sue.

quote Originally posted by Formula88: If your stop played out exactly like you say, you should contact the ACLU and sue.

I have seriously considered it. I have an appointment to talk to a lawyer to weigh my options.

Good, bad... who am I to judge ?

All I can say is I feel a lot safer when there aren't any police around. But my experience with them is very limited. The only time I see them is when driving home from work, and there are state cops left and right hiding in the bushes looking for a paycheck to steal.

quote Originally posted by D B Cooper: Good, bad... who am I to judge ? All I can say is I feel a lot safer when there aren't any police around. But my experience with them is very limited. The only time I see them is when driving home from work, and there are state cops left and right hiding in the bushes looking for a paycheck to steal.

you hit the nail on the head right there. Maybe the public would have a better view of cops, if they would leave motorists alone and concentrate on knocking out crime instead.

quote Originally posted by fieroluv: you hit the nail on the head right there. Maybe the public would have a better view of cops, if they would leave motorists alone and concentrate on knocking out crime instead.

didja know that traffic stops is how the police enforce most arrest warrants? this is also why they often ask for ID from people who are in the car too - even tho there is NO WAY they could be in ANY violation of a traffic law.
and, yes - seatbelt violation has become a "search the vehicle" worthy offense. I dont exactly understand what you may be hiding which would be relavant to a seatbelt violation - but that does not matter. you were ALREADY unreasonabley searched to determine you were not wearing your seatbelt. innocent untill proven guilty, and now unreasonable search & seizure DO NOT APPLY to traffic law - apparantly.

[This message has been edited by Pyrthian (edited 06-12-2007).]

I would much rather see the police preventing crime, than causing ten car pile ups on the interstate, because of stupid rubber neckers.

I would feel a whole lot safer seeing a cop patrolling my neighborhood trying to make sure my house don't get burglarized, than seeing 20 cops on the side of the road running radar on my 8 mile trip to work.

I know a lot of cops (Matt works for state police and I have a friend whos dad is city chief) and yes some are decent people but some are flat out a$$holes. When I was 17 me and some friends were parked outside my house sitting in the car munching on snacks and listening to the radio at like 9pm and all of a sudden 3 cop cars were like right there telling us to get out of the car with hands up ETC... We werent doing anything wrong and 2 of hte cops were nice and 1 was a jerk. He was cussing at us F this F that and I dont like that word. Well they let us go after my mom came out of the house and said we werent doing anything. I called the police station the next day and filed a complaint of verbal abuse for the 1 cop just to spite him. Not sure if anything happened to him but it made me feel better. OK sorry to go on a tale but some are good some are bad.

I also think their image would be a little better if cops were seen helping people change tires by the side of the road occasionally. In the half million miles I've driven in my time I don't think I've ever seen that. Believe it or not, some of us respond better to positive reinforcement than negative.

And overall, it only takes a few (less than friendly) ones in the bunch to ruin the overall image. Without knowing for sure, seeing just the uniform brings up thoughts of the lowest common denominator... I'm sure the average cops know who the bad-attitude ones are. I understand they're union and can't be dismissed just for doing a poor job; but maybe if they made those ones wear a different (maybe WWII German-style grey) uniform it would make it a little easier for the rest of us to give the average cop the benefit of the doubt.

[This message has been edited by D B Cooper (edited 06-12-2007).]

I guess it is time for people to watch this again http://www.jonhs.net/freemovies/busted.htm
The video is 45 minutes long and is called "Busted
The Citizens Guide to Surviving Police Encounters (US)"

[This message has been edited by avengador1 (edited 06-12-2007).]

Term limits! unless you have made detective. Maybe five years on then five years later you can apply again but not in the same county.

I have been victimized by harassment twice so far. I have also met some pretty decent guys too, but they seem to be far and few between.

My experience has been "the smaller the town, the bigger the clown". I've never had any problems with Highway Patrol or State Troopers, or Police in larger cities, but Sheriff Deputies and Mayberry style cops are generally jackasses, probanbly since they don't get as much action they feel the need to go Code 3 on everything.

i have been pulled over twice in my driving experience and both times i was treated like a felon or some bank robber trying to out run the cops. mind you i am 19 and about 5'8" white as can be red head. first time cop pulls me over i stop and he and his partner get out guns drawn yelling get out with your hands up so i do, my hands are higher in the sky then i think they have ever been and he comes over and grabbs my wrists puts both of them behind my back almost touching my neck and slams me on my car. second time. . . same exact thing. so if you ask me. . . there are a few nice ones in the bunch cause i know a few from off duty but every other one is the loser in high school that everyone made fun of and is out to try and *uck up some young happy kids life just because he wasnt happy as a kid. i honestly hate cops. i also have been burglarized several times on my car and not once have they done anything productive to help. even when my apartment was broken into and my shotgun stolen we called to report it at 9 am mind you, 9 am!, and the cops showed up at 6pm. so in my honest opinion we would all be better off having a cop down every private street watching houses then sitting on road sides. eff the cops.

edit: i was under 16 for the first stop and 17 for the second.

[This message has been edited by RenegadeFiero86 (edited 06-12-2007).]

quote Originally posted by Jake_Dragon: I think you missed part of his post in your quote. He made a decision and regretted it, it could have been a lot worse.

I read his post.
It depends upon whether he was intoxicated or not.
Contrary to what the MADD mothers and various other special interest groups would like you to believe, it is not illegal to drive after having had a drink. Or a few drinks.
It is illegal to drive intoxicated beyond a certain limit, however. If he was not "there", no foul.

quote Originally posted by Raydar: I read his post. It depends upon whether he was intoxicated or not. Contrary to what the MADD mothers and various other special interest groups would like you to believe, it is not illegal to drive after having had a drink. Or a few drinks. It is illegal to drive intoxicated beyond a certain limit, however. If he was not "there", no foul.

Unfortunately that is not true. They came up with DUI to get around the legal limit or line set by DWI.

quote Originally posted by fieroluv: I would much rather see the police preventing crime, than causing ten car pile ups on the interstate, because of stupid rubber neckers. I would feel a whole lot safer seeing a cop patrolling my neighborhood trying to make sure my house don't get burglarized, than seeing 20 cops on the side of the road running radar on my 8 mile trip to work.

They do the jobs that make them money.......there not interested in keeping your house from being burglarized.

I agree that there are good ones and bad ones. Unfortunately, the bad ones leave a way stronger impression, and there seems to be a helluva a lot more of them. Many cops I have encountered seem to be out for nothing more than to ruin someones day. Take for example, the ticket I got in my truck during a snow blizzard for having my license plate obscured by falling snow. Or the time I was the designated driver, and at the end of the evening pulled a u-turn in the middle of an abandoned street to drop my friends off at their dorm residence and got ticketed by an overly zealous cop. You can tell a lot of these people don't give a rip about helping anybody or serving the community, no - they are just small pathetic individuals who get their rocks off by ruining otherwise normal law abiding citizens day. Like I have said in other threads, given the choice between responding to a call about a woman being raped by gangbangers, and the option to stop a person who may have a slightly too dark shade of window tint or some other minor infraction, most of the cops I know would choose the latter because of the feel good factor for them.

Who knows, maybe we just have a bad crew of cops around here. There must be something special about our police department for them to have the honour of being listed on the amnesty international watch list.

Bad cop, no donut

[This message has been edited by loafer87gt (edited 06-12-2007).]

quote Originally posted by rogergarrison: They do the jobs that make them money.......there not interested in keeping your house from being burglarized.

That's exactly why I feel all the proceeds from tickets & fines should be divided up and refunded to the taxpayers quarterly; treat the taxpayers like shareholders and the proceeds like dividends. It would eliminate the conflict of interest that drives them to make counterproductive use of their time.

quote Originally posted by Red88FF: Unfortunately that is not true. They came up with DUI to get around the legal limit or line set by DWI.

Thats pretty silly, to be honest. Did you know cholesterol is an alcohol? How high a number do I have to get before I get a ride downtown?

I've never had a problem with cops. Town of about 500 and all the cops are well-behaved. I even get waived through in roadblocks.

[This message has been edited by AP2k (edited 06-12-2007).]

quote Originally posted by D B Cooper: That's exactly why I feel all the proceeds from tickets & fines should be divided up and refunded to the taxpayers quarterly; treat the taxpayers like shareholders and the proceeds like dividends. It would eliminate the conflict of interest that drives them to make counterproductive use of their time.

that would be a nice side step to the ever growing problem.

and, I am surprised by how many people think the problem is the individual officers, and not the self-serving conflicting system they work for.
it is just a job, after all. anyone ever attend traffic court? cops are usually nice & forgiving - its the judge that reaches out & empties your wallet.
no doubt, you can get the angry cop, whose wife is sleeping with me - and yes, he'll make your days suck for eternity....
it is amazing how your whole life can be turned upside down by a single run-in with a pissed off cop.

So, supertroopers is real? Did they call you a chickenf***er?

I knew it!

quote Originally posted by Raydar: I read his post. It depends upon whether he was intoxicated or not. Contrary to what the MADD mothers and various other special interest groups would like you to believe, it is not illegal to drive after having had a drink. Or a few drinks. It is illegal to drive intoxicated beyond a certain limit, however. If he was not "there", no foul.

I wasn't saying that he did anything wrong, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I was responding that Gecko stated he shouldn't have been there and why. You cant win, most cops I talk to will pull you if you don't make eye contact with them. Gecko gets pulled because he looked at the cop. Must have given him the stink eye.

quote Originally posted by rogergarrison: They do the jobs that make them money.......there not interested in keeping your house from being burglarized.

That's kind of my point. Every cop car around here says to protect and serve. The only thing they are protecting is the income of the city/county/state and the only thing they are serving is citations.

It really depends on the cop. I have had quite a few run ins with them over the years. Most have been nightmares, but every once in a while you get a good cop.
For two years I had an Alcoa Cop (a very large black man) following me everywhere I went. Even outside of Alcoa I could find him. If I went to the mall in Knoxville, he would be there. If I was out to eat, he would be there.
This all started because he had me blocked in at work one day. HE was off duty in his Truck and talking to a co-worker. I had an emergency onsite and he would not move to let my car out. When I called for my co-worker to come over and asked him to ask his friend to move he did so. I then pulled out slowly and left. A few minutes later I was at the gas station paying for my gas and this guy rushes in and arrests me on the spot, after slamming my head on the counter 9 times he drug me out to his truck. The whole time I did not know he was a cop and I never resisted until he started beating my head on the counter.

He then told the other officers that showed up, that he had seen me driving erratically and I was resisting arrest. I still had not been read my rights. Well as soon as I got to jail I called a buddy of mine, one of the local judges. I told him everything that had happened and was of coarse released immediately. The judge told me that they had a problem with this officer before, but because he was black, they had never been able to do anything about it. Apparently he had several racial discrimination lawsuits against the city. Once the officer found out I had spoken to the judge about him, he hassled me non stop for 2 years. He arrested me several times, all of those times all charges were dropped. He came into my work once to arrest me, he even followed me to a very high profile client, a senators house, to arrest me once. That time was supposedly drug charges. Again, nothing was found and all charges were dropped. This continued until the day my wife and I moved out of TN. He followed us IN HIS CRUISER all the way to the TN State line.

Yea, some cops are just asshats.

I've met both.
Last week I was on my way home my bike (75 goldwing) decided to stop running. I pulled it way off the road and started walking home, full face helmet and leathers in hand. Didn't get too far when a local cop came up behind and asked if I had car problems ( there was a car on the side a few hundred yards from my bike). Told him no, it was a bike. He took me to my place where I got a gas can, to the gas station and drove me back. We chatted about bikes and my friend came up and took me home. Later I was messing with it and another local cop came up and helped with getting a tow truck.

The power trip some policeman have happens regularly with a certain percentage of them. For all the prick things they can do to screw you on a ticket you have to remember these guys will also save your life, pull you from burning vehicles or even take a bullet for you. Doesn't make it right, but even a so called bad cop definitely has their good moments and they will help you. That little bit of power, that gun and the badge is enough to corrupt some people and leave an impression on an entire work force of hard working underpaid policeman who literally risk their lives daily. There's so many good cops that do so many good things you never hear about it's a shame. Some police see sooo much bad stuff in a day it would be hard not to become a jerk at times the stress must be terrible. These are just regular people too, with families and problems just like us.

Unfortunate you had to come across a pissed off cop. Well atleast you got off without any problems and got home safely which is most important. Make sure you grab a cab or make other plans next time, DWI's/DUI cases are frowned on by courts and they're really cracking down on violators. So many people in county for drunk driving it's amazing now, definitely want to stay away from that.

Let me preface this by saying I have never been in a situation where a cop has a reason to be a jerk to me. I don't break the law, not even a parking ticket on my record, I respect them, etc. Yet for some reason every time I encounter one they have attitudes towards me. I realize they deal with the scum of the earth day in and day out. I realize they have crappy days. But at the end of the day they work for us. If I am not doing anything wrong they shouldn't talk to me like crap. I think in my life I have dealt with two nice cops, the rest jerks. And again, this isn't sour grapes, I have no tickets or arrests or anything. It's the general attitude they have, the "I am better than you" mentality, that gets under my skin. State troopers around here are the worst, in Maryland they do nothing but hand out tickets all day but they think they are the god damn special forces or something. Ask anyone in Maryland, 90% of the time a state trooper pulls you over you are getting a ticket.

With the way people are nowadays there is NO way in hades I would want to be a cop. Every time I have been pulled over and received a ticket, I didn't like it, but I deserved it.

I can't say too much about the cops who've pulled me over, I've deserved it *almost* every time. The one time I didn't the guy was still nice enough, but he was just itching to find something to ticket me for. I was going from one highway to another, from a 50mph zone to a 65mph zone, on a nice, long sweeping on ramp. I saw the cop up ahead on the side of the road, so I made sure I was doing exactly 65. Sure enough, he follows me and pulls me over. I ask him what the problem is, and he says I was going too fast on the on ramp. I told him I was going 65, the posted speed limit. He told me that I was going too fast and needed to go slower on the on ramp. I told him I was going 65 so that I would merge at freeway speed, since thats the law. I asked him what he wanted me to do, since going slower would create a hazard. He told me I could have gone slower on the on ramp then sped up later right before I merged. He then pointed out that he was just doing this for my safety, because if the road was wet, I could've lost control on that turn. Mind you, this was in JULY, its not a very sharp turn, I could've taken it at 90 just fine, and I have good tires on my car.

So, since he can't cite me for speeding on an on ramp, he starts looking for other problems. He nit picks the clear cover on my rear license plate cause its starting to yellow (according to him) and could obscure the license plate. He makees me take my graduation tassle off my rear view mirror (this was years ago). Then he starts giving me a hard time about my front license plate. He asks where it is, and I tell him its at home in my closet. He asks why, and I tell him that because of where it mounts, it blocks airflow to the radiator, which is bad in a mid engine car that overheats as easliy as a Fiero does. He laughs and says thats a new one and tells me I can find a way to mount it so it won't be a problem. I asked why it mattered, since there isn't a Corvette, Camaro or Firebird in this state with a front plate. He tells me its technically part of the vehicle code and writes me a fix-it ticket. Thanks for wasting my time.

A lot of interesting comments on this topic. Slightly off topic anyone watch the tv show "The Shield"?


Could be worse, could be in Rhode Island LOL

quote Originally posted by avengador1: I guess it is time for people to watch this again http://www.jonhs.net/freemovies/busted.htm The video is 45 minutes long and is called "Busted The Citizens Guide to Surviving Police Encounters (US)"

For more information: http://www.flexyourrights.com/

quote Originally posted by D B Cooper: I also think their image would be a little better if cops were seen helping people change tires by the side of the road occasionally. In the half million miles I've driven in my time I don't think I've ever seen that.

We've had one killed doing exactly that.
http://www.odmp.org/officer.php?oid=17386

quote [B] And overall, it only takes a few (less than friendly) ones in the bunch to ruin the overall image. Without knowing for sure, seeing just the uniform brings up thoughts of the lowest common denominator... I'm sure the average cops know who the bad-attitude ones are. I understand they're union and can't be dismissed just for doing a poor job; but maybe if they made those ones wear a different (maybe WWII German-style grey) uniform it would make it a little easier for the rest of us to give the average cop the benefit of the doubt.

Actually, I sort of like the idea of putting those officers who like to run hot all the time in German field gray-green. They tend to make things more difficult for the rest of us.
Most times, I find if you allow a person to retain a little dignity, they'll comply with what you ask them to do. In all the years (just realized it's been twenty this year!) I've been a cop, I've been in exactly ONE situation where I had to get physical to make an arrest, and that guy was so drunk there was no reasoning with him (he was in the mood-swing stage). Every other fight I've been in was started by another officer agitating the suspect, with one exception, and that involved gunplay, and he shot me first. I won't lie for anyone; one cop lost his job because I refused to back his story when he was unnecessarily rough with an unresisting female suspect. I'm no saint; I've been known to lose my temper...but I always remember that there was a time when I didn't wear a badge, and unless I die in the line of duty, that time will come round again. If I can't win a case clean, there's no reason for me to make up something to hang on a person; if they're truly a dirtbag, they'll screw themselves up sooner or later, all by themselves, and life is too short to leave myself open to spending time in the federal pen for violating someone's civil rights, be they black, white, latino or Martian.
As for the post above about the car being searched, refusal to search is NOT sufficient probable cause to obtain a search warrant. Oh, and even if you give consent, you have the absolute right to withdraw that consent at any time, which means the search stops, right the hell then. Any judge who's stupid enough to sign a warrant which is not based on specific and articulable facts, will not be a judge long. What other factors led them to search your vehicle, or did they say?