LAWYER: How Cops TRICK Passengers Into Giving Up Their Rights

0:00 You're not driving. You're just scrolling your phone, riding shotgun. Then flashing lights, sirens, and suddenly you're part of a police stop you didn't see coming. Now, you might be thinking, "Wait a minute. They can't pull anything on me. I know my rights." Well, hold that thought because cops have a knack for trickery, especially with passengers that think they know their rights. In this video, I'm breaking down the exact tricks that cops use on passengers during traffic stops. Number two, the rights you do and don't have as a passenger. And finally, number three, we're going to cover how you can stand up for your rights so that you can protect yourself from being duped by these police tricks. Let's start with the big picture here. Why should you, as

0:46 the passenger, even care about a traffic stop? You're not driving. And most people assume it's the driver's problem, not theirs. I mean, after all, you didn't speed. You didn't run the traffic light. But here's the reality check. When those lights start flashing and you get pulled over, you're not just a spectator at this point. You're completely in it. Cops know it. And it's important for you to know it, too. So, let's start with the basics. When the police pull over the car you're riding in, you as a passenger have constitutional rights. You're not just a piece of carry-on luggage. The difference here is your rights are still different than the driver's rights. Now, why does this matter? Well, I want you to know I actually sat down with my 17-year-old son, and I had the same talk that you and I are having here today by explaining to him that as a parent, it's

1:32 my worst nightmare to think that my son would be riding with some friend of his or somebody he barely knows. And the next thing he finds out, he's being pulled over because of something the driver did. and then an officer might trick him or manipulate him and group him in with this driver and the next thing you know he's lost his rights and even worse could possibly take place. Now, when I told my son this, he was shocked. He said, "Wait a minute, that's the driver's problem, not mine." And then I had to remind him the Supreme Court says different. In the case of Binland versus California, in this 2007 Supreme Court case, the court says that when a car gets pulled over, that everyone within the car is technically seized under the Fourth Amendment. In plain English, you're detained. You can't just hop out of the car and start

2:17 walking down the road like it's not a big deal. You may be completely innocent and doing nothing wrong, but during a traffic stop, the cop still has authority over passengers. Now, you might think this is common sense that you have to stay there while the cops pull up. But you have to understand this detention allows cops to now mess with you. They may ask for your ID, start quizzing you about where you're going, or they may even want to search your stuff. And here's the scary part. They're trained to make it feel routine, like you just need to play along. But let me let you in on a secret. You don't have to play along. You do have rights, but they only matter if you stand up and exercise those rights. So, let me paint the picture real quick. Let's say cops pull over your friend who's driving the car. And when they pull up, they come to your side as the passenger and they

3:03 said, "Hey, you got an ID? What's in that bag? Where have you been? What do you guys been doing in this car?" You might think, "Well, I didn't do anything. I'll just answer and I'll be nice." Big mistake. This is exactly how the cops start fishing and they'll hook you if you open your mouth. Now, I want to remind you, even as a passenger, you have certain rights that started before you even got pulled over. First of all, you've got a Fourth Amendment right to be protected from any unreasonable search and seizure. That means no rumaging through your pockets or your backpack or your other property without good reason. You also had the Fifth Amendment, which means you don't have to answer questions that could get you in trouble, or for that matter, any questions at all. But here's the catch. Those rights only work if you know how to use them. and cops are counting on

3:51 you either being nervous or not knowing your rights, then they can take advantage of the tricks we're going to get to in just a moment. If you don't know this stuff, you could accidentally give cops permission to search your stuff or admit to something you didn't mean to or get drugged into something that had nothing to do with you and really had to do with the driver. Knowledge is your best defense here. So, let's keep building it. And one of the best ways we can do that before we get to those tricks is to identify some of the myths that I hear on social media all the time. And I want to make sure you don't get tripped up by what you're hearing. Myth number one, I'm just a passenger. It has nothing to do with me. Now, we just covered this on that Brinley case we identified. We now know that's not true. Don't fall for this myth. If you're getting pulled over, you're just as part of this search and

4:36 just as part of this investigation as the driver himself. Myth number two, I have to hand over my ID if the cop asks for it. Not necessarily. In most states, you do not have to hand over your ID as a passenger to the police unless they have reasonable suspicion you have been involved in a crime. Now, watch out for some of those stop and identify states like Nevada. And thanks to the horrible case of H Highel versus 6th Judicial District Court, that case established where cops, if they have some reasonable suspicion, can actually ask for you to identify yourself, but only in certain states. But what if you're just a passenger during a speeding stop? That is not enough. Believing you have to hand over your ID to the police as a passenger is a trap. Don't fall for it.

5:24 Myth number three, as a passenger, I have to answer the officer's questions. Wrong. Again, you have a fifth amendment right to remain silent. All these questions about where are you coming from? You got any drugs? What are you looking at? You can simply say, officer, I exercise my right to remain silent. And it's important you do say that because there is case law out there that says if you do not specifically exercise your right to remain silent, the officer could try to take your silence and use it as a sign of your guilt. So remember, you say, "Officer, I exercise my right to remain silent." Now, I understand I get a lot of push back from some people that say, "But all this pressure, the officer's looking at me, trying to make me feel uncomfortable. I feel like I have to say something." You absolutely do not have to say anything other than I

6:09 exercise my right to remain silent. Myth number four, if they ask to search, I have no rights because I'm just the passenger. A big no on this one. You have a right to refuse consent for cops to search your stuff, your property, and your person. The Fourth Amendment says that cops need probable cause, a warrant, or your consent in order to search your stuff. So, think about it. If they are asking your permission to search your stuff, they need you to say yes. Saying I do not consent, is a power move that you have under the Constitution that can stop cops from performing searches on you as a passenger. Myth number five, because I'm the passenger, I can refuse to get out of the car even though they can force the driver out. Now, this one stings a

6:56 little bit because in 1987, the United States Supreme Court in Maryland versus Wilson said that cops can order you out of their car for their own officer safety, even if you're a passenger. So technically, yes, you have to comply and get out of the car, but it doesn't mean you've given up all your rights. And we'll cover that here in a minute. Myth number six, if I'm polite and I follow along, they'll let me off easy. Look, generally speaking, it's always good to be polite and keep things calm. But that doesn't mean cops are going to just remove you from their normal trickery playbook. They might smile, act friendly, and maybe even crack a joke. But this is all part of their trick and their training in order to get you talking to get you feeling comfortable and then trick you into consenting.

7:41 Don't let the officer being nice to you trick you into dropping your guard. And the problem with these myths that I've covered here is because they give you the vibe and the belief that you have less control over this situation than you actually do. True story here. client guy named Mike calls me in, says that he was a passenger in a car with a broken tail light. Mike thought most of this had nothing to do with him. So when the cop walked up and said, "Give me your ID." He felt like he had no choice. So he handed the officer the ID. Next thing he knows, cops are back there running his ID and they see an old traffic ticket he had forgotten about. And because he wasn't thinking, the next thing he knows, he's outside of the car, handcuffs are on, and he's going to jail for a traffic warrant. If he had known his state laws and asked the question,

8:28 "Am I required legally to provide this to you?" he may not have ended up in this mess. Okay, so we've busted several of the myths here that are out there on social media. So, let's jump right in to your legal rights as a passenger. Number one, it is true that if you're pulled over during a traffic stop as a passenger, you are technically under the Constitution, you are seized, but that can actually be a two-edged sword. Now, we talked about Brinland versus California. And we talked about how if you're pulled over as a passenger, you are technically seized, which means you can't just get up and walk away. But there's a flip side to this. Because you are seized under the Fourth Amendment, you also now have certain Fourth Amendment protections. If the stop itself was illegal or if the cops did something illegal as it relates to you, you may now have fourth amendment standing to be able to make an argument

9:15 in that situation that anything they found as it relates to you or they can affirmatively link to you may be able to be thrown out. Number two, the fourth amendment protections you have as a passenger extend to not just from you, but also to the other property you have. Let's say you're sitting there in the front seat and you have a backpack on the floorboard sitting between your legs. In order for the officer to be able to search, once again, what do they have to have? They have to have a warrant, probable cause, or your consent. If they are asking for your consent, then they don't have either of those other things. So, it's important to understand they can't just grab that backpack and dig into it and look for whatever they want. When I was in law school, I got into a serious car accident. I was injured, overwhelmed, and at the time, I thought hiring any

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11:33 www.forthepeople.com/amptonlaw or scan the QR code on the screen to learn more. If you've been seriously injured, you owe it to yourself to know your options. And Morgan and Morgan fights to get their clients the compensation they deserve. Number three, you have a right under the Constitution to not be detained for an unreasonable period of time. So, it's important to check the clock. In the 2015 United States Supreme Court case of Rodriguez versus United States, the Supreme Court said that once the time, the reasonable amount of time it would take for the cop to write you a ticket or give you the warning has expired, it is not legal for them to continue to hold you and detain you on the side of the road in order to keep fishing or try to find anything else illegal. So, if you get this feeling that the cops are stalling and keeping

12:19 you on the side of the road, you have a right to ask, "Officer, am I free to go?" And if the officer starts to kind of act like he's unsure, then you can say, "Officer, I do not consent to a search of my vehicle or myself." And at this point, I'm asking, "Am I free to go?" It forces to pl the officer to be placed in a situation to decide, is he continuing this traffic stop? Is he going to legally be able to justify this or is he going to be in a place where he's got to cut you loose? So, let's play this out for a second. Let's say you're a passenger in a car. The cops pull over the driver of the car because of it's a busted tail light. They walk up and they start questioning you and they say, "I need your ID." What you can do is look over at that officer and say, "Am I required to?" Because in the states that you do not are not required

13:06 to provide that information. Now, the officer might say, "No, you're not required to, but I'm asking you for your ID." You can say, "Officer, at this time, I exercise my right to remain silent, and I will not answer any further questions without my lawyer present." These rights are important for you to know because armed with these rights, you can now spot the tricks that cops are now going to try to use to get what they want. Trick number one, the ID grab. I've seen this happen so many times. Cops walk over to the passenger side and they lean in and they go, "Hey man, how are we doing tonight? Let me see that ID real quick." Now, you have to stop. In that moment, understand what state are you in? What are your rights currently? What type of stop is this for? Are they only claiming that you were speeding? that the driver was speeding that night. That's not probable cause. That's no reasonable suspicion

13:51 related to you having committed a crime. So, you need to first know those two things. Know your rights there. But remember what they're doing. The officer is going to act very casually. He's going to be like, "Hey, just let me take a look at it real quick." Remember what he's going to do. It's a trick because if you hand it over to him, he's going to say, "Hey, hang tight. I'll be right back." What do you think he's going to do? He's going to go back to his cruiser. He's going to sit down, type in your information. He's going to try to find anything and everything he can. some old traffic stop, traffic ticket, something that maybe you missed some sort of ticket court date for anything out there that he can find to run. Or maybe even check with the Department of Public Safety and find out whatever else you might have out there. Like maybe you were uh maybe you were driving through and you forgot to pay your toll tag. Whatever else might be out there, you have to understand they're going to run that. So realize it's a trick. And if

14:38 you are in a state that does not require you to identify even yourself, you can easily exercise your rights and tell the officer you exercise your right to remain silent and will not answer any questions without your attorney present. Trick number two, cops get everybody out of the car and they claim your buddy already told them what happened. Now, we already know that under Marilyn versus Wilson, cops are aware that they can get everybody out of the car. But one of the tactics they try to do is separate the driver from the passengers and ask each other questions. And here's what cops might do. They might walk over and go, "Hey man, did you know that we just found this in the car? By the way, the driver just told us it was yours, and unless you want to go to jail tonight, you better tell us exactly what's going on." Now, I want you to understand this

15:25 is a trick. You have an absolute right to remain silent. They separate everyone in that situation in the hopes that you'll start talking in the fear that you might end up getting in trouble. In the end, I want you to understand this is nothing more than a trick. Cops are trained as part of their normal training to separate the parties. And they can use legally they are allowed to lie to you under the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court rulings have said they're allowed to lie to you and use trickery in order to get you to start talking. So, don't fall for this trick. Trick number three, the consent trap. Mind if I take a quick look in your bag? You don't have anything illegal in here, do you? Now, these are the kind of common questions we know officers will ask you trying to get you to say, "Oh, no, no, there's nothing illegal in there." Well, then

16:11 you don't mind if I search, do you? But here's a trick you've got to watch out for. Many times, if you're the passenger riding in a car, the officers might turn around and ask the driver for consent to search your stuff. If this happens, you better pipe up very quickly and say, "Officer, that is not his property. It is my property. I do not consent to a search of my place or my per my property or my person, and I will not answer any further questions without my lawyer present." And by the way, make sure you say it loud enough for the body cam to hear this audio footage or as I'm going to cover here in a second, make sure you're recording everything so that way it can be crystal clear that the driver could never give consent for them to search property that was not his. Trick

16:58 number four, the chatty cop. Here we are, Mr. Friendly. The cop walks up and starts asking questions. Now, we know he might start asking you, "Where are you coming from? Where are you going? What have you two been out doing this evening? you guys having a great night? Now, they may start off that way, but here's the trick you have to watch out for as a passenger. Many times, they will turn around and start asking the driver questions. And if the driver starts talking, they will use the driver's willingness to talk as a way to make it feel like it's inevitable that whatever happens to the driver is going to also happen to you. Be very careful here. You have separate rights in that situation. They must separate they must separately prove whatever they're trying to claim here against each of you. So you do not have to fall for them believing that just because the trick worked on the driver, it doesn't mean it

17:44 has to work on you. You can exercise your right to remain silent, you do not have to cooperate. Trick number five, the cops use the stall game. So we know the cops will walk up and maybe they write a ticket, but then they may say a few things or maybe they'll issue a warning to you and then they'll start saying things like this. Oh, just one more thing, right? or maybe they start walking around the car looking at anything for any type of equipment malfunctions. Watch out for this. If things feel like they're taking too long, they probably are, and it may be an unreasonable amount of time. If the cops keep stalling and trying to get you to talk, remember that Rodriguez versus United States makes it perfectly clear that prolonging the traffic stop past the time it takes to reasonably provide you that traffic ticket or that

18:30 violation is now going to require the cops to have separate brand new reasonable suspicion of some type of crime going on. Otherwise, what they are doing is an illegal investigation. So, what is your move to stop cops here? Are we free to go? You need to ask that question exactly like that. Officer, am I free to leave? If they say you are free to leave, get out of there. If they say no, you say, "I exercise my right to not only remain silent, I do not consent to a search of my car, my right to remain silent, and I will not answer any further questions without my lawyer present." So, finally, we've covered a lot of the main points here of how to protect yourself and to potentially stop cops from violating your rights as a passenger, but I want to give you a few more quick points here. Number one, if

19:16 the officer walks up to you, particularly if it's at nighttime, be very careful about how you move inside the vehicle. This is one of the number one ways I've seen cops use this as a pretext to get everybody out of the car and escalate the situation. So, even as a passenger, I'm always saying on my videos that the driver should keep their hands on the steering wheel and no quick movements. But the same thing holds here as a passenger. So, as a passenger, if the officer starts to walk up, you need to keep your hands out in front of you, maybe on your hand, you know, on your knees, certainly not reaching for anything, no quick turning, no grabbing for anything or elevating your voice. You don't want to be loud. Any of this can be used by an officer to claim that your behavior placed them in a position of officer safety risk. And they can use that as a reason to not only get you out

20:02 of the car, but now start doing a pat down search on you for weapons because they're afraid you've placed them at risk. So, it's really important that you stay calm, keep your hands visible, no quick movements. This will help protect you. Number two, if the cop starts getting aggressive with you and tries to force you out of the car, ask to take your property with you. If they say no, you can't touch anything. Leave it in the car. You say, "Officer, I want to make it perfectly clear. Those are my items. I do not consent to any search of those items whatsoever." And then finally, record everything. Literally, if you're being pulled over and you start getting this feeling, pull out your cell phone, position in a place where you have it recording. Even if you can't do it from a visual perspective, you can have an audio recording of this going on the entire time. This is really

20:47 important to be able to do this because you would hope that the police officer would turn their body cameras on, but sometimes I've seen, well, not just sometimes, many times, and it's been documented all over our our country where police officers will sometimes decide to turn off their body camera as they approach someone. Or perhaps they'll muffle it. Maybe you can't hear everything that's going on. or maybe one officer has their body camera on from a further distance away, but the one that's actually up there talking to you does not have the body camera on and none of this is recorded. Don't ever trust that the police are recording everything. The only way you're going to know for sure that you can memorialize that your rights have been violated or that the police are being held accountable in a situation like this is to make sure you're actually turning on your recorder and make sure this is

21:33 going on. Now, some some people I see actually have that recording device within their car itself. But either way, make sure you're recording all this so that you're able to make sure you're protected. Well, there you have it. Your complete guide to shutting down police tricks as a passenger. But what if this time you're driving and now cops pull you over for a tickytac traffic violation, walk up to your front window, and start feeling like maybe they're using tricks on you. Check out this next video where I break down all the specifics of how to stop cops from tricking you as a driver during a traffic stop. See you over there.