How to Survive a Traffic Stop Drug Bust

The best recommendation to prevent being involved in a traffic stop drug bust is to avoid being pulled over in the first place with drugs on you. If you already find yourself in a traffic stop drug bust, stay calm, and consider these helpful guidelines:

Do not attempt to run or escape

As soon as you see the cops coming, you should pull over as soon as possible, staying inside your vehicle at all times. You have to pull over in a manner that will not aggravate an angry or annoyed law enforcer. You can do this by staying calm, use your turn signal to indicate any lane changes from left to right, and slowing down quite quickly. Pull over as far to the right as possible in order that, when the enforcer comes up to your window, she or he won’t have to worry about being hit by vehicles in the right lane.

You must never present the officer a good reason to charge you with evading arrest. Numerous times an arresting officer may commonly pull you over for a traffic offense, and after you are given a ticket, will permit you to go without further questioning. You may wish to go back to that place later on making certain the officer was saying the truth with regards to how she or he examined your speed, observed your turn, or watched any other offense.

Right after you stop

So as to get favor with the police officer, you must show that person a few other token courtesies. To minimize any preemptive fears an officer may keep, begin by completely shutting down the engine, rolling down your window all the way, setting your hands on the steering wheel, and, turning on your interior light fixture, if it is dark.

Wait for the law enforcer to provide you with instructions

Do not begin exploring your back pocket for your wallet and license, or searching through your glove compartment for your registration. You should also refrain from keeping your hands in your pockets or reaching under the seat. This is probably the simplest way to get searched because, for all the policeman understands, you might be getting a hand gun. The police officer may use safety as a need to search you if she or he believes you carry drugs or are involved in other unlawful activities.

This is the primary reason that police note as their main justification for performing a search without seeing or detecting drugs. The cops will mention that you made a “furtive movement and he was worried you might have a weapon.” Unless there is a video recording, it is your word against the officer and 9.5 times out of 10, a prosecutor, judge, or jury will be convinced of the policeman over the accused.

Be polite to the officer

If you communicate in the right manner to an officer and show courtesy, then you have a much better possibility of him or her not suspecting that you are engaged in illegal activities. Don’t speak first, especially starting off the conversation in a defensive or unwelcoming manner. The officer will probably ask to see your license and vehicle registration. Don’t insist that the officer quickly tell you why you were stopped. Just simply reply “okay” or “sure,” then hand over the documents. Be diplomatic and well-mannered; however, this does not mean disclosing all the contents of your car or person when asked. Chances are that if you never tell him there is a pound of marijuana in the trunk, he will never have a reason to look for it.

While in police training, traffic cops learn to decide, before leaving their vehicle, whether they’re going to give a ticket or just a warning. Some may act as though they still haven’t made up their minds and are going to let you off only if you’ll work together, like consenting to a search. The hesitating officer may be trying to look open-minded in order to extract admissions out of you, to use them against you in court if necessary. Don’t fall for this.

Don’t agree to a consent to search you or your car

If police ask to search you, your car, or other property, it means that they do not have a legal right to search. You should never believe that if you say yes, the officer will just assume you don’t have anything to hide and leave you alone. If you say yes to a search, then you are offering the police “consent” and that is all it takes for a legal search to happen. Most of the time, giving your consent to search will result in the officer immediately and completely searching your car, locating the hidden drugs, afterwards carting you off to jail.

Even if the police threaten to get a drug dog or a warrant, always tell them “no” to a search. If you do so, there is a strong possibility that by the time the drug dog gets there or for a judge to sign a warrant, you will have been confined for an unreasonable amount of time– longer than the law permits, breaching your rights. With this case, the drugs found will be instantly tossed out by a judge at trial as evidence, leading to you winning your case.

Do not confess to ANYTHING

You have heard it before in many police dramas: you have the right to remain silent. Use this advice. The corollary of Miranda warnings is that the prosecution can not use a suspect’s silence as evidence of guilt in a court of law– otherwise the warnings would be insignificant. The arresting police officer may act like your friend, but she or he is never going to like you so much that they throw away the drugs and let you off the hook.

Normally, police will try to sympathize with your situation, or try to get you to acknowledge guilt by making it appear like it’s “no big deal.” However, this is a huge deal! All the arresting officer is aiming to do is get you to admit guilt and create a case against you by letting him find the drugs.

Even though drugs are found, declaring they are yours does not support your case. Even when drugs are found in your car the burden is still on the police to forge an “affirmatively link” to you.

Choose a great lawyer

If your traffic stop results in the drugs being found and your eventual arrest, at this point, there is pretty much nothing that you can do or say that will help make the cop change his mind. The only thing left to do, and conceivably one of the most important thing, is to find a skilled attorney. You must do this as soon as you bond out of jail. Start off by making appointments with attorneys who will estimate a reasonable fee, and also one that is skilled in defending drug cases.

This is very important and can definitely change your life. If you have been involved in a traffic stop drug bust, and your future is on the line we hope you will give yourself the best fighting chance and call the best drug attorney there is.

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