Oftentimes, motorists can be seen sitting in the gutter or on the curb of the sidewalk while cops dig through their vehicles after a traffic stop. It seems to have become a regular ocurrance - police pull someone over, get the driver to witlessly admit to the traffic offense (recording their admissions and using it against them), then escalate the situation to the point where the driver and passengers (often young and poor, unaware of their rights) are tricked into giving the officer consent to search their vehicle and invade their privacy without any reasonable suspicion, probable cause, or warrant. I saw it recently at a taco place. This woman in the photos was pulled over by a CHP officer, who started immediately rummaging through the woman's vehicle while she obediently stood at the cops car and watched. In the photo to the right, you can see the officer's boot as the rest of his body is inside the car, with him rummaging through the woman's back seat. Later, he digs through her purse on the hood of his car as she stands there and watches.
This woman should not have consented, and neither should you. You have dignity, and there is no reason to allow strangers to rummage through all your personal belongings. If there is cause for cops to rifle through your belongings, tell them to get a warrant. If anything, you might come across a corrupt cop who will plant something such as drugs, a gun, or worse in your car and then frame you for it. Sound outlandish? tell that to the cops in southern California, who admitted that was their policy for years as they laughed about it in court: POLICE ADMIT PLANTING GUNS AND DRUGS IN CARS, LAUGH ABOUT IT.
The U.S. Supreme Court has already addressed this issue, In Knowles v. Iowa, 525 U.S. 113 (1998):
In Knowles v. Iowa, 525 U.S. 113 (1998), The Supreme Court held that the Fourth Amendment does not authorize a full automobile "search incident to citation". The Fourth Amendment prohibits a police officer from further searching a vehicle which was stopped for a minor traffic offense once the officer has written a citation for the offense: "the need to discover and preserve evidence does not exist in a traffic stop, for once Knowles was stopped for speeding and issued a citation, all evidence necessary to prosecute that offense had been obtained."
[SEE ALSO: TX Troopers Forced To Admit "the passenger is under no obligation to comply with request" for ID in Federal Court. :-)