DALE CARSON LAW

Always refuse to allow police to search you, your car, or your home. There is no necessity whatever in you giving up your Fourth Amendment protection and your Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination by allowing law enforcement to badger you into authorizing a search. Search can happen for three particular reasons. One, exigent circumstance, your house is on fire. Somebody’s got to run into the house to rescue children. That is exigent circumstance. The next is allowance by voluntarily saying, “Oh, sure, you can search. I don’t have anything to hide,” which is insane because when under what circumstances would you allow somebody you don’t know from Adam to search your personal belongings simply because they ask to do it? You probably are a group of friends that you have that you would never let into your house to search your house just because they ask to do it. Thirdly, there is the warrant, and a warrant requires probable cause before a judge before the judge will authorize that particular search, and of course, that’s a process. That’s not going to happen instantly, and it’ll give you an opportunity for law enforcement to go, “This individual is knowledgeable, not threatening, and not a jerk.” I’m going to go find easier prey because the whole purpose of a search is to put you in jail. So, no, you should never allow them to search you, your house, or your car voluntarily, and even if were some sort of admission of potential wrongdoing, it doesn’t make any difference. You really don’t have any choice except to refuse and ask them to get a warrant or let them go some place else.