Getting pulled over by the police can be a confusing and overwhelming experience even if you do not believe you have done anything wrong. Police officers in Alabama cannot pull a car over without reasonable suspicion.
The reasonable suspicion standard is low. If a police officer sees you roll through a stop sign, fail to use a turn signal or follow too closely behind someone else, this is likely enough to provide reasonable suspicion.
What to do when you are pulled over
Pull over to a safe place when you see the police officer’s lights and place your hands on the steering wheel. Comply with their requests for your name and identification.
Although the police only need reasonable suspicion to pull you over, they cannot search your vehicle without probable cause. This means that they have reasonable justification to believe they will find evidence of a crime in your vehicle.
Probable cause can develop in many ways. The police may ask if they can search your vehicle. You do not need to say yes.
If you give the police officer permission to search your vehicle, they can legally perform a search. But you do not need to say yes just because they ask.
When you say no to a vehicle search, the police officer cannot search your vehicle without legal grounds or a search warrant.
Although you may say no to a vehicle search, the police officer is still legally allowed to search a vehicle within a driver’s wingspan. The purpose is to verify that there are no weapons or items that could be used to harm the officer. Police officers must be able to perform their jobs in a safe environment.
Exigent circumstances
Exigent circumstances give police probable cause to search your vehicle without a warrant. Exigent means that an urgent or emergency situation is happening and the police must search your vehicle to ensure the safety of everyone involved.
An example of exigent circumstances is if you or someone in your vehicle claims that there is a bomb in the vehicle that is going to go off. This gives the police probable cause to search your vehicle to attempt to find the bomb.
Sometimes your behavior gives the police probable cause. There may be no probable cause present for a vehicle search at the initial traffic stop.
Perhaps the police pulled you over simply to tell you that you had a broken taillight and were planning to give you a warning.
If they speak with you about the taillight and you act suspiciously, such as trying to quickly move items around the vehicle, refusing to answer basic questions or becoming argumentative, they can use this behavior as probable cause to perform a search.
Plain view
Plain view means that police officers may search your vehicle if they spot something in plain view that gives them probable cause to believe more evidence of a crime will be found in the vehicle. A bag of drugs sitting on the passenger seat that is visible to an officer as they approach the vehicle is an example of something in plain view.
If you are arrested for a crime, your vehicle is impounded. The police will search your vehicle for inventory purposes to remove any items for safekeeping.
You might believe that if you are pulled over the police can conduct a search of your vehicle no matter what the situation but this is not always true. An illegal vehicle search generally means that any evidence recovered cannot be used, sometimes leaving the prosecution with no case and no option but to dismiss the charge.
