police officer's ethics

[luonganh]

Can a police officer stop your vehicle and check the engine? This posting may sound weird, but a friend of mine got cited for $300 for not having a label on his carburetor. Is this legal? It just sounds so out there you know. He got pulled over, and the officer asked him to pop his hood. Can he stop your car without any justification of external damages . The officer isnt a mechanic. Please let me know as soon as possible. It is very important. thank you.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

Originally posted by luong_anh
Can a police officer stop your vehicle and check the engine? This posting may sound weird, but a friend of mine got cited for $300 for not having a label on his carburetor. Is this legal? It just sounds so out there you know. He got pulled over, and the officer asked him to pop his hood. Can he stop your car without any justification of external damages . The officer isnt a mechanic. Please let me know as soon as possible. It is very important. thank you.

My understanding is that they can stop you for three basic reasons:

1) You committed a traffic offense
2) There is a reasonable suspicion that you are involved in a criminal activity
3) Random stops provided that there is no pattern to stopping the vehicles (and must be random.)

I'm not sure there was any justification. Are you getting the whole story? Could his engine have made a great deal of noise prompting the officer to stop him?

 

[JohnMacek]

My understanding is that they can stop you for three basic reasons:

1) You committed a traffic offense
2) There is a reasonable suspicion that you are involved in a criminal activity
3) Random stops provided that there is no pattern to stopping the vehicles (and must be random.)

I'm not sure there was any justification. Are you getting the whole story? Could his engine have made a great deal of noise prompting the officer to stop him?

i hate to say it, but thelawprofessor sounds a little biased towards the police. in the area i live, countless people get searched and/or cited for offenses such as too little tread on their tires... something that is near impossible to discern while watching a car while in motion. there are laws that can be broken by replacing components on your vehicle w/ non-oem components (in my state, components not approved by the california air resources board [ie CARB] ), so there may well be an infraction here. i would argue the case from an illegal search from a 4th amendment standpoint, barring any other pertinent information.