Last night, my husband was driving home from work. He drives a 1999 Civic Si. He was pulled over, even though he was not observed breaking any laws (like a tail-light out or speeding). The police officer told my husband he had run his plates and discovered that they were expired, and that his registration did not match the plates (called it "Fraudulent Use of Registration), however, the tags were current and did match the registration. My husband tried to explain there must have been a mistake and the cop believed him but still slapped him with $400 in tickets. Long story short, a mistake had been made (we got it cleared up today at the DMV and the charges will be dropped).
My question is, why the heck should the cop be allowed to profile and run random plates while driving when he didn't see a violation occur to spark suspicion? I don't know, maybe I'm being sensitive, but it sounds like the cop had a quota to meet since it is end of month.
Informative answers please!
2006-10-30 05:47:44 · 21 answers · asked by Yuna 2 in Politics & Government ➔ Law Enforcement & Police
Tags were not expired and matched the VIN on my Civic, however, the plates still were for some reason registered under our previous vehicle that we sold, and therefore expired. The DMV goofed and didn't transfer the plates correctly. The cop told my husband he was letting him off easy with $400 in tickets, because he could have just impounded his car and taken the plates away instead.
My husband was so confused and was trying to explain how it would be impossible to have expired plates with valid tags unless someone did it on purpose (idiots really), but the cop said he HAD to write the tickets. What a bunch of crap! Oh well at least it's taken care of.
2006-10-30 06:02:26 · update #1
My tags were not expired, please read carefully. My plates were expired (the mistake made my the DMV), but my tags were valid. It was easy to see that it was a mistake, but my husband was still slapped with fines.
2006-10-30 06:05:56 · update #2
Quotas are illegal. They have a tendency to force police offiders to make "cheap pinches" when in any other circumstance you'd just get a lecture versus a ticket. A police officer doesn't really have to have a reason to run your marker plate. It helps but as long as he/she can articulate as to what they saw that might have prompted them to do so is fine. I can assure you. If you want to make a case of it you'll get the reason. What? Maybe there wasn't one? I can attest that if it ever came to a department complaint or a court issue, there'd be a reason. One you couldn't contest either.
But that aside, any minor reason can be used. From that point on its fair game all the way. I can say this. Most cops won't just pick a car out of the blue to run a marker plate. You don't have to be any particular color either...despite what people think. A swerve, a weave, a license plate light out or even looking for a Civic operated by a white/black/whatever male that may have been reported leaving a bar intoxicated. Who knows?
Granted it is a pain in the as* for you and hubby but look at it this way. better at home than in Podunk, IA on vacation and the cop out there discovers the same thing. Now you're spending time in Podunk in court.
Try and look for a sliver of sunshine.
2006-10-30 06:24:54 · answer #1 · answered by Quasimodo 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Anybody can follow you on any public road, for as long as they wish to. It doesn't matter if they are a police officer, animal control, or a private citizen. A police officer can choose to run your plate for almost any reason, but he does need a reason. That reason could be "The driver looked suspicious," or "The vehicle matched a car that had been reported stolen" (Do you have any idea how many cars get reported stolen every day? That would be tough to beat), or "I couldn't see the sticker and I wanted to see if it had expired." Anything like that, and it would be tough to prove that the officer was making it up and just ran your plate because he was bored. If the officer did admit that, you would beat it.
After running your plate and finding a violation, the officer probably wrote the citation anyway, even though he did probably believe your story, just to ensure that the problem got squared away. For example, I was pulled over a while back for speeding but I couldn't find my proof of insurance. I had my old card, but not the new one. The officer wrote me a ticket. All I had to do to beat it was show proof that I was insured at the time I got the citation. It also made me be certain to get the new insurance card in my car so I could find it again the next time I got pulled over. Not only was this the officers goal in ticketing me, but it also made sure that I would be properly punished in case I was a convincing liar when I told him that I was insured, but that I just forgot to put the new card in my car.
2006-10-30 07:11:41 · answer #2 · answered by elchistoso69 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
License plates are not the property of the owner of the car, they are the property of the state in which they were issued. Different states have different policies. In NJ, we can check someones plate for validity and/or current status, including the status of the registered owners license. However, we can't initiate a motor vehicle stop without cause and then check the plate.
With many police vehicles having mobile computers, most people do not even know their plates are being checked, unless, as you now understand, something gives the officer reason to initiate the stop.
If you plead not guilty and show the judge proof that there was an error on behalf of your motor vehicle department, he may be more inclined to dismiss the summons.
2006-10-30 07:59:18 · answer #3 · answered by Matt R 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
YES! Very acceptable. The officer is simply checking to make sure you have a legal vehicle on the public roadways. He is not unlawfully restraining you or arresting you in any way he is simply running a check in the State's DMV database.
Once he sees that you are in violation he now has probable cause to make a lawful traffic stop and issue a citation. This also gives him the opportunity is observe any other laws that a person may be in violation of.
Many many criminals are caught in this way. There are moving violations and administrative violations. Officers must enforce them both.
It was good that the mistake was corrected. Glad to hear that.
2006-10-30 17:30:22 · answer #4 · answered by FL_FunGuy 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Kind of depends on what's going on. The police officer does need to either observe a violation or have "probable cause" to believe a violation is occurring/has occurred before he makes a stop. However, the scope of probable cause is pretty broad, and driving in a way that might suggest drunkenness is sufficient to make a stop. Even something as simple as running from the cops can allow them to check you out. Remember that the officer does not have to actually see a violation to pull you over, provided there is something that suggests that there might be a violation.
Once the stop has been made, the officer is not only allowed to run your places, but probably required to do so. So no help there.
The cop may have been acting inappropriately, but proving this in court is pretty difficult, as courts tend to be pretty generous to police officers making traffic stops. I'd say that in your case, "no harm, no foul", and be glad you were able to get the charges dropped.
2006-10-30 06:02:27 · answer #5 · answered by Ryan D 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Of course it's perfectly legal and normal to "run" a plate.
How else would they know:
If a car is stolen?
If the person in the car could potentially be violent?
If the plate is stolen?
If the plate is expired?
If the person(s) in the vehicle could potentially have warrants?
If the person(s) in the vehicle could be part of an Amber Alert?
...so on, and so on....
Keep in mind that to Officer is not a DMV employee. He/She can only work off the facts at hand. In this case, He/She can only work off the facts that the DMV is saying his tags were expired/fraudulent.
Food for thought...in most states the Officer can TOW your vehicle on the spot in ADDITION to the tickets. I think you got a break...the Officer didn't tow you.
I'm glad you got the issue cleared-up with the DMV.
The blame is with the DMV, not the Officer.
2006-10-30 05:57:14 · answer #6 · answered by Robert 5 · 3⤊ 1⤋
You're not telling the whole story. But... if there TRULY was no PC for a search, then, no, it's not a lawful search. Even if there was, most departments have policies in place stating that, if possible, a female officer is to be called out for the pat down. But in general, male officers are allowed to search female subjects when circumstances permit, and vice versa. The bottom line is officers need to ensure their safety, so waiting around for 10 minutes for a female to get on scene isn't the safest thing to do when your subject may have a weapon. Again, I don't think you're telling the whole story.
2016-03-28 01:48:15 · answer #7 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is legal and it is common practice. Police officers can get a big break by pulling somebody over under those pretences. You are driving perfectly and nothing is wrong with your car and you get stopped because the DMV did not renew your registration you can still get stopped. Now what if he stopped you but you have a dead body in the back seat or a bunch of drugs on you. That is how they catch a lot of things.
2006-10-30 08:48:17 · answer #8 · answered by Michael R 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
If the sticker on the license plate is expired or shows expired then the police do have rights to run your plates. That is a law to have your sticker updated on your plates at all times.
Honestly, in my opinion, I think it is fine for them to run the tags on random cars. Do you know how many people the could catch in the wrong? They catch people who stole cars, runaways, etc. I understand your situation and meeting quota also. I do see that happen more towards the end of the month but I think it should be fine for them to.
2006-10-30 05:50:51 · answer #9 · answered by Keith Perry 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
At the time the officer ran your plates he had reason to believe your registration was expired, reguardless as to why they were. You obviously fixed that and got the charges dropped.
The officer had a legal reason to stop you........your registration was expired ( considering the facts at teh time ).
How was the officer profileing? Why should he not be able to randomly run plates.....what if it was stolen. If you had a car stolen you would hope and officer would run those plates on your car. If the person who stole your car was not doing anything to be suspicious after he stole your car, he would not get stopped based on your profiling and random running of plates theroy.
Plus you don't know for a fact if the officer saw something that was suspicious. What is suspicious to you may be different to him.
2006-10-30 15:31:09 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋