slapdown

Alright, if my car was getting searched, but I had all my stuff in a box that had a padlock on it, could the cop ask me to open it? What if I said I didn't have the key?

blondie0420

I know where this is going, so I'll tell you right now, locking your stuff in a box/safe is not going to get you out of a possession charge.

If a police officer has probable cause to search your car, he can open your locked glove box and your locked trunk, so I don't see why a locked box would be any different. It might depend somewhat on what he's looking for, however. If he's looking for a gun and the box is the size of a matchbox (eg. something no gun could possibly fit into), he can't open it. (That's the old "elephant in a matchbox" doctrine.)

If he has reason to believe that you've got something illegal in the box (say the smell of mj was seeping out of it) and he wanted to be extra-careful, he could go get a warrant to open it and make you wait while he does so.

If you lie about having the key (meaning you say you don't have it, but it's on your key chain or something), you can be charged with interfering with a police investigation. So I wouldn't advocate lying.

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BartSimpson

Good on you for asking, because it sounds like you think there is a little trick, or some loophole, that will get you out of that pickle. Better to focus on preventing the search by practicing certain principles - and never get busted.

Please let me tell you about the Teenage Trifecta. When a group of teenage males are in a vehicle with MJ, they will be busted. Only three things need to be present - Young men, Vehicle, Weed - and if any one of these three things is not present, you usually don't get busted. It's really simple.

Want to get 99% total protection - don't smoke in groups.

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FoD

Yeah.... that's extremely wrong. I smoke and ride all the time and I have never been busted. I don't even have a traffic ticket. Been pulled over plenty of times with "things" in the car and not shit happen. It's all about your attitude. If you act like you didn't do anything then the cop will pick up on that. Plus... it helps not to give the cop a reason to pull you over in the first place... drive like an intelligent person.

Stupidity gets people busted.

EDIT: Ok I read that again and it sounds a little.... mean? I don't mean to come across as an asshole, I just think that if you hang with people who are not dumbasses then the amount of people you smoke with shouldn't matter. By all means if your friends freak out at the first sign of a leo then yeah, don't ride and smoke with them.

BartSimpson

We like a good debate so your comments didn't seem out of line to me. Welcome, FoD, but remember the hundreds who will read this thread and not comment - but might take your word for gospel. It's called playing to the bleacher seats, the average "Joe the Smoker".

So I am going to argue that it really does matter when you are in a group of young men. Groups of young men stick out, both to the general public and the police, and pretending that they don't is youthful folly. A group of young men will attract attention, a group of young men riding around in a car will attract the attention of police. We have thousands of stories - seriously thousands - of young men who were busted by the teenage trifecta.

I can explain in depth the reasons, but the summary would be that the most dangerous, unpredictable, creature on the face of the earth is the young adult male human. That is why our military is made of these guys. Our resident LEO's have backed this up a hundred times (since you are new; I beg you to read some of Niteshift, K9Copper and Phuzz01 posts for your own education - they are seriously candid about this concept).

I agree with you to pick your smoking partners carefully, nobody wants to smoke with "Joey" who falls apart at the mere sight of a LEO. But so much more is involved. Being discrete and understanding the Teenage Trifecta is the best balance of advice for the broad audience here.

There are thousands of stories of young men getting busted on this Legal Forum, which could have obviously been avoided, if we could just teach young men that simple precautions can be taken to prevent drawing the attention of the police in the first place. Not traveling around with the boys on Friday night, hotboxing the ride, and pretending to be invisible, is a really good start.

I welcome anyone who offers good advice to prevent getting busted in the first place. In that regard, you and I are very much similar, my younger brother. Your turn.

shibshib

The solution is to use a safe with a pass-phrase...

Then make the passphrase an admission of guilt to a lesser crime, like "On May 23rd, 2008 at 2:43pm I parked in a handicap place."

Then when they ask you to reveal your passphrase, you plead the 5th.

I honestly have no idea if this would work, but I found it interesting when I read about it in regards to data encryption and having to give up your password lol.

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Q: Does weed make you smarter, ShibShib?
A: No, it just focuses me. ADHD is like having a bunch of TVs in your head, all running different programs, and having no ability to control them. Marijuana not only appears to give me a remote, it also allows me to shut off all the other TVs sucking up the juice... which makes the TV I'm watching a bit brighter.

BartSimpson

Either you open the safe the easy way, or the Cops will open the safe the hard way - but it's going to get opened if probable cause exists. This is covered in the Search and Seizure thread pinned at the top of this forum. Perhaps the OP and you may wish to review that thread.

It is really important on this Legal forum that we don't just pull shit out of our ass and offer it as advice - others depend on this forum for legit information. And for your information, the Supreme Court has determined you are not required to give up an encryption key, however the device may be seized for forensic examination. An excellent source of info about this is Schneier's Blog

troublemaker_42

Bart is 100% correct. Passphrase, combo lock, whatever...it makes ABSOLUTELY NO DIFFERENCE. If the cops can legally search something, the mere fact that its locked is but a minor inconvience. The only reason i'd ever advocate carrying our drugs around in a locked min-safe is if you wanted to eliminate any chance of the cops NOT finding the drugs. Having a locked safe, and pretending not to know how to open it, isn't going to help you in any way whatsoever (unless, you happen to have something in the safe thats 100% legal in every way, you actually DON'T have a way to get in and you don't want to pay someone to open your safe for you!!! I have a friend who,last I knew, carried his stash in a safe. I laughed when I saw it, and asked if he was just trying to save the cops the trouble of looking for hios drugs, because a locked safe will only postpone the inevitable, and offers no protection legally whatsoever

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Ted Nugent: "To my mind it is wholly irresponsible to go into the world incapable of preventing violence, injury, crime, and death. How feeble is the mindset to accept defenselessness. How unnatural. How cheap. How cowardly. How pathetic."


If total government control equals safety, why are prisons so dangerous?

Buzzby

And then they open the box with a hammer and chisel.

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ninfan77

See the dead horse?

I won't beat it.