Quote:
Originally Posted by premier3is
When I was younger one time I was hanging out with a buddy of mines near an ocean viewpoint, and I guess you can't stand there past like 10pm or something. We didn't realize we couldn't be there past 10 and were just chillin, listening to music, talking and smoking cigarettes. (I quit smoking a few years ago tho  )
Anyways, cop car suddenly shows up, shines a light on us from the back walks over and asks what we are doing. Seemed nice, just said hanging out. Told us it closes at 10pm we can't be here. Proceeds to ask us if we have anything on us... I said no. Asks for ID and then both cops ask us if we can be patted down. I was confused, we technically weren't doing anything wrong?
My question to you is, is this a legal search/pat down or whatever you want to call it? I let him since I didn't want any problems but what happens had I had said no?
Im genuinely curious about this and have wondered about it for many years. |
Technically the two of you were detained based on a violation of whatever municipal code (...
and/or trespass violation) was committed regardless of intent, so the cop "
asking" was just a diplomatic exercise. Case law permits pat downs and/or searches depending on the circumstances. Had you declined, the cop(s) would've done it anyway because they were well within the law and had the authority to do so.