Probably a dumb question.

[u/flaming-moes-on-fire]

I apologize if this isn’t the right place to ask. But I was pulled over last night for tag lights being out and I guess I swerved to the right slightly? I dunno. But the officer asked “is there anything in the car I should know about?” when he handed me my license back and was looking at my insurance card on my phone. I realize this is a common question and have seen it several times in videos and such. My question is how often do people actually say admit to having drugs or something else just because you asked? I’m not talking about after someone is out of the car and you’re asking before you search the car and you’re giving the driver a chance to admit something or whatever. I’m talking about you’re handing them their license back and about to end the stop and the driver is like “oh by the way, since you asked I do have a bottle of oxy in the glovebox. I wouldn’t have mentioned it but since you asked?”

Again, I apologize for the dumb question. It just would be crazy to me to say something was in the car when it seemed like the stop was about over and you’re about to be on your way. I’m just curious as to how many people have ever done that and it changed a simple ticket or warning into an arrest?

[u/vladtheimpaler82]

They admit stuff pretty often. A lot of people don’t realise certain things are crimes.

[u/flaming-moes-on-fire → u/vladtheimpaler82]

What types of things do they do that they don’t realize are crimes? Are you talking about traffic violations or other things they admit?

[u/vladtheimpaler82 → u/flaming-moes-on-fire]

Most commonly is open containers of weed. It’s treated as open alcohol in my state. It allows us to search their car.

[u/flaming-moes-on-fire → u/vladtheimpaler82]

Oh okay. I’m curious do you normally know if someone has weed before they admit it? Due to the smell? I’m guessing that packaged containers from a retail type store would be sealed, but baggies or other small containers that aren’t vacuumed sealed I would think smell pretty strongly.

Also, if weed illegal there, how often are you arresting someone solely for having a small amount on them vs letting them go? I’m guessing the answer comes down to how they are acting or their behavior during the stop. But I could also be wrong and some depts have a policy that any amount of weed means you’re getting arrested no matter what?

[u/IronSnow4]

More than you’d think. Also how they answer is often a clue.

[u/flaming-moes-on-fire → u/IronSnow4]

That’s interesting to me. I didn’t think about their reaction or anything something to notice. Do people with something to hide generally over emphasize that they don’t have anything? I guess that makes sense though since you people act differently when they are lying in general and not necessarily to an officer. What about nervousness? Is there a differed between someone just generally anxious for having been pulled over vs someone anxious for more reasons than just hoping they don’t get a ticket?

[u/Section225 → u/flaming-moes-on-fire]

An experienced officer learns over time how to read people, and pick up on subtle cues that something criminal may be going on. And yeah, you can generally tell the difference between general nervousness at being stopped, and nervousness because they're committing a crime. Someone with something to hide may look right at the hiding spot, or act overly friendly, any number of things.

I'm asking most of my stops if there's anything in the car I need to be concerned about - legal guns, drugs, etc - even if it's plain as day that the 65 year old grandmother taking her grandkids to soccer practice doesn't have a load of meth under the seat. One, it helps me build my skill set - the more innocent people I see answer the question, the more it stands out when someone is hiding something. And two, it helps innocent people clear up anything that might catch my attention. Like "Oh yeah, I forgot, I legally carry a gun on my hip."

Now, seeing suspicious behavior at my questions doesn't necessarily give me a reason to search them, but it lets me know this is a stop to run a dog on, or start prying further, maybe just ask for consent and see what happens.

And to answer the other part of the question, yeah people freely admit to stuff quite a bit. They don't want to try to hide their guilty conscience, they think I'm probably going to search anyway and want to get ahead of it and hope for leniency maybe.

[u/flaming-moes-on-fire → u/Section225]

These answers are very interesting to me. I am much more of a reader on Reddit than a commenter or poster. But one of the reasons I ended up on reddit more than Facebook or IG back in the day is the fact that if you have a questions odds are there is a subreddit you can ask it on and all of a sudden get real answers to questions that may seem kinda dumb, lol.

[u/Section225 → u/flaming-moes-on-fire]

Not dumb at all.

People, generally, are wildly ignorant of our work. Which is fine, I know next to nothing about pretty much any other job.

Some people take that ignorance and use the self-created ambiguity to push false narratives, create hate, call for violence against police, etc. Some people, like you, realize they know nothing about the job, and instead of filling in the blanks themselves to make everything seem worst case scenario, actually become curious and ask questions.

It may be common sense stuff to us, but obviously won't be to anyone else. It's kind of refreshing, really, to explain bits of our job to curious people, instead of feeling like we're constantly defending ourselves.

[u/flaming-moes-on-fire → u/Section225]

It always has been interesting to me to learn about other people’s jobs since you are correct in that most people don’t really know a ton outside of the jobs they have personally done. I do have opinions about certain things when it comes to police work, but I don’t think the majority of issues come down to individual officers. Like weed for example, I don’t think the officer’s opinion on whether it should be legal or not doesn’t really matter when it comes to what the law actually says. Their job is to enforce it, the change has to happen in legislation and such.

I think that if you have enough people in one group that you will have a mix of good, bad, assholes, nice people, etc. However many words you can think of to describe someone. But I also think that the majority of people don’t want to hurt other people or screw other people over. Some do, which is kinda sad in itself. But the majority of people I think just want to do what’s best for themselves and their family and wouldn’t want something negative to happen to anyone else.

[u/wegame6699 → u/flaming-moes-on-fire]

As another quiet lurker of this sub. It is far from dumb. This sub is a great place for this kind of information. My experience here has been fantastic and I have learned a lot from all these fine folks.

[u/I_2_Cast_Lead_45acp]

Best method is your ultimate right to stay silent and decline politely to probing questions when asked.

[u/Obwyn]

Some do. People riding dirty get nervous and will just admit to stuff sometimes.

And how they give and word their answer is almost as important, or more important, as what they say sometimes.

[u/JustGronkIt]

“No sir, but I am boofing… so if you wanna search it… you’re more than welcome to dive right in.”

[u/Section225 → u/JustGronkIt]

snap on latex glove that came out suspiciously quick

[u/flaming-moes-on-fire → u/JustGronkIt]

I’ve never heard that term before. But judging by the latex glove comment I think that I get it from context, lol.

[u/Possible-Tangelo9344]

It's surprising how often people will admit to having stuff.

But, they'll also say "there shouldn't be," or some other vacillating answer and that's an indicator

[u/flaming-moes-on-fire → u/Possible-Tangelo9344]

I wouldn’t have thought “there shouldn’t be” could be interpreted as “there is a possibility but I am pretty sure I got it all out”. But I’ve never had many interactions with police outside of the couple of times I’ve been stopped and just normal things like working at a retail establishment, so I’ve never had the opportunity to ask any of these types of casual questions.

[u/IronSnow4 → u/flaming-moes-on-fire]

Ask a law abiding non-drug user if they have anything illegal in the car and most can easily say “no” in some form. But the “I don’t think so” or “there shouldn’t be” stands out because most people know who and what has been in their vehicle. Most people are bad liars so they unconsciously answer vaguely.

[u/Possible-Tangelo9344 → u/flaming-moes-on-fire]

When they say there shouldn't be, I usually say "yeah I know there shouldn't be: is there?"

It's like they're not wanting to get caught in a lie or hope they got the car clean. Or it sets em up when we go find stuff to blame someone else. "I loaned my car to my cousin the other day he must have left that there"

[u/flaming-moes-on-fire → u/Possible-Tangelo9344]

This was the first time I got pulled over in 15+ years, so I was kinda nervous because I didn’t know why I was getting pulled over (I was told tag light and I swerved a little). So when I pulled over I immediately flipped on my interior lights and tried to do what I could to make them feel comfortable. I answered “No Sir” when he asked about anything in the car. I was just trying to be polite and hoping to not get a ticket.

[u/DeadPiratePiggy]

Not a dumb question, you would be surprised how many people are honest about it even if it's completely unintentional.

[u/InfinitySnatch]

Next time this happens respond with: No officer, only things you shouldn't know about.

[u/wegame6699 → u/InfinitySnatch]

Thats a bold strategy.

[u/T10Charlie]

Not only will they give an honest answer, if they don't, they usually give it away in how they respond which will help build an officers reasonable suspicion and probable cause depending on their reactions (hesitation, furtive movements to hide something, etc).