How To Protect Your Rights When Police Search Your Car
Video Transcript
Police generally need a warrant, your consent, or probable cause to search your car. Officers often cite marijuana odor as probable cause, so you should clearly refuse consent and stay calm while documenting the stop. This article explains key exceptions, how to assert your rights, and when to contact a DUI/criminal defense lawyer.
Ray Hrdlicka – Host – Attorneys.Media
“Are you referring to narcotics as something greater than the use of marijuana?”
Regina Tsombanakis– DUI Attorney – Fort Lauderdale, FL
“Well, marijuana is what they use to search the car. The smell, because that’s the only one that smells can’t smell meth or anything. So… the odor of marijuana is a huge reason that officers, write on the probable cause, that they search your car. They stop… oh, soon as I come up, they’ll stop you… ‘Oh, your tints look dark’. They really want to search the car.
So, then they come up and say, ‘oh, smells like marijuana’, you know, and they search the car. If they find…whatever they find, maybe no marijuana, maybe they find cocaine. Whatever they find, you’re arrested. It starts with the odor of marijuana.”