5 Traffic Stop TRICKS Cops Hope You NEVER Learn (Lawyer Explains)

0:00 Imagine you're driving home with your friends and loved ones and then all of a sudden you see the red and blue lights behind you and you're getting pulled over. You don't care too much cuz you haven't done anything wrong. But here are five police tricks that could land you in serious trouble. Let's jump right in. Number one, the small talk and bad attitude approach. Officers do not care where you're coming from, where you're going, how your night's been, but they're trying to get you to make some admissions of wrongdoing, where you're coming from. A bar care, but they're asking these questions to try to get you to open up to what you're doing or what you're going on. So, don't fall for their trick. Conversely, you have officers sometimes come up with a bad attitude right away because they're trying to go you into some sort of

0:46 response. We saw this recently this past February in Indianapolis. a police officer in Walmart basically is on body cam. He's talking smack to this driver that hasn't done anything wrong. And the officer actually goes and calls for backup. Once the officer knows a backup is coming, he can talk more smack trying to get a reaction. And guess what? You end up getting a reaction. So don't fall for these tricks. They don't care where you're going. Sometimes officers want to go you. Don't fall for it. Trick number two. Silence is not your friend. What? Mark, you have the right to remain silent. Yeah, you have to exercise your right to remain silent. And the courts have said you have to say I'm exercising my right to remain silent. I prefer the simple term saying I plead the fifth. But the courts have said Selenus v. Texas. You have to tell them you're

1:31 looking your right to remain silent. Kind of stupid, right? I'm not in charge. I'm not in the highest court of the country. But you have to tell them that where you're going, where you're coming from. You can't just not say anything. Now, lots of states, including Indiana, you have to give them your driver's license or at least tell them your name, address, date of birth if you're going to operate a vehicle in this state. We get all sorts of comments. No, Mark, I have the right to travel constitution. I get it. Understand that. You have to give them that license or date of birth name, address. Otherwise, you're going to get a crime called refusal to identify in Indiana. Lots of states have similar crimes. So, you have to tell them you're invoking your right to remain silent. Trick number three, the officers will often times use your movements in the car to say that you are a danger to them. You're some sort of issue with

2:17 them, but they're going to say, "I wasn't safe. Uh, he's hiding something." So, please keep your hands on the steering wheel. If the officer asks you to get something, tell him what you're doing. I'm going into my glove box to grab the thing you just told me to get. Now, this can get kind of dicey. You're trying to record the encounter. If you're actually in the driver's seat, I recommend you say, "Hey, Siri, record." and you record audibly. If a passenger, tell the passenger to record visually, but the driver needs to have their hands visible. Passenger needs to have their hands visible as well. But sometimes the passenger get away with actually recording a video. Just be very careful. It's very easy for an officer to say, "I wasn't feeling safe." And because of that, I want more. I want them out of the car. I want to search the car. They're hiding something. But it's very easy for an officer to have someone get

3:03 out of a vehicle. Pennsylvania v mems, you have to get out of the car if they ask you. So, please, we always get comment, "Oh god, get out of the car. They can't pull me." Please get out of the car. Be very deliberate with the movements. Announce things ahead of time so that officers aren't saying you're posing a safety risk to them. Courts are very forgiving as soon as officers say those magic words, officer safety. Almost anything goes if they're saying officer safety. We have a really cool case in Indiana. They push back on that a little bit, but still pretty much go-to for an officer to say, "I did it because of officer safety." The courts are going to give the officer lots of leeway. Trick number four, this car search. They're going to do everything they can to get you to consent to search your vehicle. There's two questions they ask in order to do this. Anything illegal in the car? No, officer. Nothing

3:49 illegal. Then you wouldn't mind me searching the car. Think about that. You wouldn't mind me searching the car? If you say yes, they can say he gave consent. I want to search the car. If you say no, they can say he didn't mind if I searched the car. That question is designed for you to confuse you. No matter what you say, yes or no, they can interpret it as they can search the car. So they ask that. Simply say, I do not consent to a search. However, there's no confusion from that. Body cam, you're recording. I don't consent to a search. They can't say I was mistaken on their response. Don't fall for that Jedi mind trick that these officers are taught in the academy. It's a trick. They know it's a trick and they're trying to trick you. Don't get tricked. Officers are going to get mad. They're going to be like, "Well, making this harder. I'm going to get a warrant. I'm going to apply." They're asking for your consent. they probably don't have enough for a

4:36 warrant. And then if you consent to a search, consent cures almost any issue. So they shouldn't have asked you in the first place. If you consent, of course, you're going to be like, "Consent, Mark? Come on." Also, they're going to hold you at the side of the road. They're going to search the hell out of your car, dumping things out, getting all in your business, and then you don't know what other people brought into your car. You have no idea. You have a little cousin that borrowed the vehicle, your friend that whatever. You don't know what people bring to your vehicle. And then I bet you $100 you don't inspect your vehicle after you give a ride to somebody. Please don't consign to a search. Now, if you don't consent to a search, they can possibly still search the vehicle with automobile exception to the warrant requirement, but there's lots of requirements for that. Have to have probable cause. The vehicle can't be on your curage, your driveway, front yard. Vehicle has to be apparently able to run and drive. And then they have to

5:22 search in a manner that would only be okay if they did have a search warrant. Those are lots of things they have to do, right? If you don't consent, those are four things that I get to attack. Please don't consent to a search. Number five, this drug dog situation. They're going to say, "Hey, I'm gonna get a drug dog over here. You don't consent, I'm just going to call down Fido. He'll come on running down here. Search the car." Listen, they can't prolong the traffic stop any longer than a normal traffic stop to get a drug dog on scene. If you're unlucky enough and the drug is in the car that you got pulled over, well, they can do a drug dog search. So, let them know. say, "Okay, officer, let me know when I'm free to leave. I want to leave." And that way it lets them know they're on the clock and they can't be dragging this thing out to do wait for a drug dog to get there. Now, if a drug dog does come or if the stop is taking

6:09 longer than you think necessary, remember, please record the encounter. You can't do it visually. Do it at least audibly. Announce the time, 15 minutes, what's going on. And if the dog does get there, you want to record that vehicle. You want to tell the officers, I do not consent to the search. Repeatedly ask, "Am I free to leave?" And you want to stay calm. Don't give the officer any reason to handcuff you, put you in the back of the squad car. Stay calm. Record all that fun stuff. If you navigated all these tricks by officers and they still end up arresting you, okay, that's not fun. Call an attorney. We'll help you out. Don't run. Don't fight. You really want to be extra polite because it's terrible when you have a good client who's acting a fool on these body cams because sometimes trial it's a popularity contest. It's not right,

6:55 right? But sometimes it is. So, please remain cool and calm. Let the officer look like a jerk. Off video, not you. You've watched this far. Please like and subscribe. Once a week, we try to do some sort of know your rights video. I think they're awesome. Maybe you think I'm different. If you love it or hate it, leave me a comment. I will try to respond to every single comment on it. If you are in Indiana and you have a legal issue, give me a call 317-6323642. But most importantly, remember to always play the