Why would you give a consent to search?
I came across an article in the Houston Chronicle regarding a recent drug seizure. The drug seizure was a 400 pounds seizure of marijuana in San Antonio. My first question is if you had 400 lbs of marijuana in your vehicle, why would you voluntarily give the officer consent to search your vehicle? I guess this guy did not read or take my advice in a previous post and “Just Say No”! What I also find interesting is how the officer said that this was just a routine stop for an expired registration. In my opinion, this sounds like a “pretextual traffic stop”. Unfortunately, the courts allow officers to make pretextual stops, as long as they can reasonably articulate some minor traffic violation that was committed. If the officer, truly stopped a person for an expired registration, why would you ask a person for consent to search his/her vehicle for a “routine” traffic stop. It’s all a load of crap. It’s just a way for officers to pull people over for minor traffic violations in hopes of having people, ignorant of their rights, consent to a search in hopes of finding evidence and probable to arrest for drug offenses generally. Generally, if the officer had probable cause to search your vehicle, the officer would not need your consent. Remember, just because the officer asks does not mean you are obligated to to allow the search…that’s your constitutional right!!!
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