CrimLaw

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From TalkLeft (an excellent blawg which I frequent far less than I should because it is the only website I have found which just won't work with my preferred browser, Opera):

Alabama is now committing to a policy of not stopping people because of racial profiling. You know, this is garbage. We put officers in a position wherein we tell them when their suspicions are not constitutionally valid they can use bad-faith pretense stops in order to effect an investigative stop: e.g. "Ma'am, I pulled you over for a cracked windshield. Before I let you go, you don't have any drugs in your car? [no] Then you won't mind if I have a quick look inside?" We train them to do this and wink at them in court when they come in and testify that the only reason for the stop was the cracked windshield (for which they don't even write a ticket).

Basically, I'm saying that we need to let the officers off the hook by leaving them alone to continue the bad-faith pretense stops which we have told them they should be doing over and over again or by limiting them solely to the scope of the matter for which they stopped the car (with necessary plain view exceptions): e.g. no asking if drugs are in the car, if the officer can search it, or having a drug dog just appear out of thin air a minute after the stop. Personally, I favor the second option but we need to be clear for the officer on the road whichever route we choose.

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