LEO contact AGAIN!?

[dreiner2]

Well, being a hairy beardo in LA is getting tougher,
I was driving down the 5 near Magic Mountain, cruise control at a nice 68mph when suddenly the horrifying red lights in the rear view mirror.
I pulled over, LA County Sheriff deputy comes up, asks for my license and asks about my Oregon plates. I handed over the license, explained about the plates, and handed him my CCW since I was carrying. He asked if I had a firearm on me, I told him yes, he askes where, I told him in a holster on my right hip.
At that point he asks me to step out of the car "to make sure my firearm was registered" and asked if I had any other firearms on me. I had to tell him that actually, I had a .22 rifle in the back seat and another pistol in my range bag, I was on my way to Oak Tree Gun Club to shoot.
When I stepped out the other officer placed my pistol in his pocket and informed me that my CCW was only good in Kern County. Now I know this is not true, but I did not want to argue, they seemed a little "uptight".
The 1st officer commenced to do a complete search of the entire contents of my car asking about EVERY THING he came across while officer 2 called his supervisor and asked about the validity of my CCW, finally he actually reads the back and discovers that my CCW is valid.
As I was talking to officer 2, officer 1 says"Well, at least he has an emergency clown nose" I have that in my gear for my baby neice if she gets fussy, but the officer just said"This is really weird".
Well, they let me go with no warning and no explaination of why I was pulled over and searched so thoroughly. As I was pulling away, they took off and immediately pulled over another out of state car, not sure what was up but I guess I was lucky to get out alive!!!

[guper]

Garunteed that I won't be the only one saying this but it sounds like a lawsuit worthy case. Not ok for the police to run the serial number on your gun nor to search your vehicle if the cause of the stop wasn't the reason for the search.

[David2531]

Originally Posted by dreiner2

Well, being a hairy beardo in LA is getting tougher,
I was driving down the 5 near Magic Mountain, cruise control at a nice 68mph when suddenly the horrifying red lights in the rear view mirror.
I pulled over, LA County Sheriff deputy comes up, asks for my license and asks about my Oregon plates. I handed over the license, explained about the plates, and handed him my CCW since I was carrying. He asked if I had a firearm on me, I told him yes, he askes where, I told him in a holster on my right hip.
At that point he asks me to step out of the car "to make sure my firearm was registered" and asked if I had any other firearms on me. I had to tell him that actually, I had a .22 rifle in the back seat and another pistol in my range bag, I was on my way to Oak Tree Gun Club to shoot.
When I stepped out the other officer placed my pistol in his pocket and informed me that my CCW was only good in Kern County. Now I know this is not true, but I did not want to argue, they seemed a little "uptight".
The 1st officer commenced to do a complete search of the entire contents of my car asking about EVERY THING he came across while officer 2 called his supervisor and asked about the validity of my CCW, finally he actually reads the back and discovers that my CCW is valid.
As I was talking to officer 2, officer 1 says"Well, at least he has an emergency clown nose" I have that in my gear for my baby neice if she gets fussy, but the officer just said"This is really weird".
Well, they let me go with no warning and no explaination of why I was pulled over and searched so thoroughly. As I was pulling away, they took off and immediately pulled over another out of state car, not sure what was up but I guess I was lucky to get out alive!!!

So was he not able to read that is little thing that says within the state of California!!!!!!

[EM2]

Bummer,
what was the speed limit of the highway? I am assuming 70?

On it's face it sounds like another case of abuse of authority.
Evidence from story:
No speeding occured
vehicle had out of state plates
next vehicle pulled over had out of state plates (trend developing????)
driver volunteers info about CCW and hands over evidence of same
driver asked to exit vehicle under a made op reason (I know this one will be debated)
illegal search of vehicle without cause (did the officers explain their cause substantiated by evidence of a possible crime or an immediate danger to the officers - I think not)
officer makes snide comment about content of vehicle (officer knows he has a captive audience who is at his mercy and seems to be living out some desire to bully?)


over

[dreiner2]

Originally Posted by EM2

Bummer,
what was the speed limit of the highway? I am assuming 70?

On it's face it sounds like another case of abuse of authority.
Evidence from story:
No speeding occured
vehicle had out of state plates
next vehicle pulled over had out of state plates (trend developing????)
driver volunteers info about CCW and hands over evidence of same
driver asked to exit vehicle under a made op reason (I know this one will be debated)
illegal search of vehicle without cause (did the officers explain their cause substantiated by evidence of a possible crime or an immediate danger to the officers - I think not)
officer makes snide comment about content of vehicle (officer knows he has a captive audience who is at his mercy and seems to be living out some desire to bully?)


over

Speed limit is 65 in that stretch I believe, but pulled over doing 68mph? Not really speeding
Also,on the way back north on 5 a few hours later, I saw the SAME LACSD suv pulling over ANOTHER car on SB 5 RIGHT WHERE I WAS PULLED OVER!! I couldn't really tell, but it sure looked like an out of state plate to me.
Finding then ridiculing my emergency clown nose kinda broke the ice in a way...but still...

[dreiner2]

Originally Posted by guper

Garunteed that I won't be the only one saying this but it sounds like a lawsuit worthy case. Not ok for the police to run the serial number on your gun nor to search your vehicle if the cause of the stop wasn't the reason for the search.

It was very invasive. He looked through every bag, pocket, crevice, and corner of my car and was staring at a receipt he found in a bag which I looked at afterwards, it was a WalMart reciept for ammo from last month....
I am not the litigious type, but this was WAY outta line in my opinion.
Serial number of gun matched SN on CCW=No problem I thought, none of this "running the SN to see if it's registered".
Also I am pretty darn sure that was a totally illegal search of closed bags, packs, cases,etc in the storage compartment of a hatchback...but what can you do....

[Aurelius]

Ah, yes, a revenue stop. Very popular in some communities, and usually targets out of state drivers because the cops know that most will not fight the ticket nor complain of the illegal stop.

[mark]

maybe he had a bad experience when he was a tourista in Oregon

[bigrich]

I was told by a coworker that a LASO deputy was pulling random people over on the 405. one right after the other. they are fishing...

[Citizen]

Abuse of police authority really gets me.

[bigrich]

Is there any possibility the LEO really thought the permit was only good in Kern Co or was he just busting chops?

I think it was a heavy badged cop and that is why they have a bad rap in my neighborhood…

[Spicy McHaggis]

If you were doing 68 in a 65, that was speeding. Regardless of what you here about them allowing you to go 5mph or 10mph over the speed limit. There is nothing in the vehicle code that says you are allowed to go 5-10mph over and they can't stop you. They can also find another 10-15 reasons to make a stop. Have you seen California Vehicle Code 23120?

You told them you had guns in the car. You volunteered that info (and they probably would have seen the rifle in the backseat); therefore, they are allowed to check those firearms to make sure they are unloaded. No way are they going to allow you to grab them to show them. They also seem to enjoy running the serial numbers. There is nothing illegal about that either. In fact, that is probably backed up by case law. They are also not going to allow you to sit in the car while they search for more firearms.

Not really sure about searching the rest of your vehicle at the same time though. That's a little iffy, but might be allowed under past case law as well. I know some people would say "Tell them it is against the 4th amendment and they can't search your car." That's easy to type here, but even harder to actually say when you are there. Never plead your case on the street, that is what court is for.

Also, for the deputies to be on the freeway stopping cars probably means they were part of a special detail and were looking for something. Based on the fact that they were searching your car so thoroughly and they were stopping cars with out of state plates, they were probably looking for something specific - such as people smuggling drugs. I've been on ride-alongs with LASD before, including their OSS team. That's all we did - target specific cars/people.

I'm kind of surprised that nobody here has said they can't pull you over on the freeway, because he is not a CHP. That's always a good one. And guess what, a CA peace officer can also pull you over anywhere in the state and also in the first 100 miles of Arizona, Oregon, and Nevada - and vise versa!

[louva]

If you feel like it was a bad stop and an unwarranted search you might send a letter to the sheriff and let them know. I wouldn't expect anything to happen but it may make you feel better.

[Sidekick]

CHP is usually the unreasonable cop regarding CCWs, surprised the Sheriff Dept gave you a hassle.

[mjones]

That isn't even remotely the 'norm' for LASD in that area. I'll lay money that they were part of a taskforce out of downtown looking for drug runners and not from the local station.