Can the police search your car during a traffic stop? The general rule is no. There is an exception to that, and that is if you’re ultimately arrested and they’re going to tow the car away from the scene, then the answer is yes. But during the course of that initial encounter where the police officer is engaged in what our United States Supreme Court refers to as the competitive enterprise of ferreting out crime, during that stage, the officer has to follow the rules. And the rule is, is that unless you consent to it, and please don’t consent to it if you have things in your car that you don’t want the police to see, a simple no is all it takes to put an end to that search. So the police are counting on the fact that they are cloaked in the color of law, that they’re wearing the uniform, that they have the badge, that they’re carrying a gun, that they use their emergency lights to pull you over. Most people are very intimidated by that and think that because an officer says, “I want to search your car”, they’re obligated to do so. They’re certainly not.

Most people don’t know that it’s okay for them to say no. And what I always tell my clients is, is that if you’re dealing with a police officer, all you have to know are four words, and they are, “Do I have to?” If every time a police officer makes a request of you, you respond with those four words, “Do I have to?”, you will make this encounter far more friendly for you and far less friendly for them because a police officer is either gonna lie to you and say yes or he’s gonna tell you the truth and say no. And if he says, “No, you don’t have to”, please follow up with, “No [Chuckles].”