time-lock safe legal issues

August 13, 2006 12:35 PM

Would there be legal issues with possessing a time-lock safe in a vehicle? I have a 10" x 12" time lock safe for myself which I use to keep credit cards, goodies or anything else I need to dole out to myself in small amounts. I'm leaving on a trip to California and it seems this item may cause issues if I were to be pulled over for any reason. Anybody know the law concerning this? Should I just leave it at home?
posted by anonymous to law & government (8 comments total)

I would never have thought to ask the question, what made you ask. I would have just assumed that it would be treated as anything else in your car and that without probable cause it could not be searched. Assumng you are not transporting drugs, weapons, huge amounts of cash or explosives I would guess that it is not a problem. I supppose you could set it for reasonable short time intervals so if you were stopped and your car was searched it would open in a realtively short period of time . If you are taken to a booking station have them look up metafilter and check out the good/bad advice you got.
posted by rmhsinc at 12:51 PM on August 13, 2006

Unfortunately, it really depends on the cop. Vehicle searches are one of those things that a cop could be as vindictive or as nice as he wants to be -- it is a real "he said, she said" sort of thing. They can certainly (with probably cause, which again can be anything) wait until the time safe lock opens up. I have never had any trouble with the police, but I am white and drive a nice car which I keep clean. I have friends of different races and socio-economic backgrounds that do not have the same experiences I do. Do not carry anything suspicious, keep your car as clean as possible. The less like a drug user you look like (or I should say a stereotypical drug user), the less of a chance you will be put in a bad situation. Why not just put it in the trunk if need be?

So the answer is that it is not illegal to have a time lock safe in your car unless some county you drive through has an obscure local law against it. The key is to be as low-profile as possible. For better or worse, three hispanic men who speak little english and are carrying a lot of cash will more likely be searched than a couple of mormons driving to church.
posted by geoff. at 12:57 PM on August 13, 2006

Keep your car as "clean" as possible? Clean as in drug free, or clean as in washed? I never thought of the literal cleanliness of my vehicle as a serious factor in my chances of getting pulled over or hassled...
posted by crabintheocean at 1:08 PM on August 13, 2006

Yes, no it is. Now this comes from a traffic lawyer -- but he specifically said that if you carry anything illegal to make the car as presentable as possible. Like vacuumed, no trash sitting about, etc. The idea is that junkies will look like they have been living out of their car and non-junkies keep things clean. It sounds stupid, but I am just repeating what I heard. I think the demeanor of the person and everything else come into play too, but if you're worried about being pulled over and searched -- why risk it?
posted by geoff. at 1:21 PM on August 13, 2006

"Clean as in drug free, or clean as in washed?"

Clean as in "neat and tidy," though "washed" won't hurt either. A police officer needs probable cause to search your vehicle without your permission. The less he can see when he looks through the windows, the less chance he'll have to make up something "probable."

That's assuming you get pulled over in the first place, which you should obviously try to avoid. And then, if you do, it assumes that the officer would have the impression that there's something to gain from searching your car -- which is where not looking like a druggie comes in.

Assuming that does happen, at least be prepared for it.
posted by CrayDrygu at 1:26 PM on August 13, 2006

I once read an anecdote of someone who had 2 pretty equal candidates for a job position - so he followed them out to their cars. One had a filthy, trashed interior; the other didn't... and the clean car's owner got the job. So yeah, people do judge on things like that.

You might want to keep the safe in your trunk... police officers don't need a search warrant to confiscate illegal items in plain view. Not that your safe is illegal. I *think* I've also read something to the effect that a police officer can search your vehicle without your permission if they have probable cause, but not your trunk.

Here's the non-video version of what CrayDrygu linked you to.
posted by IndigoRain at 2:05 PM on August 13, 2006 [1 favorite]

You don't mention what states you'll be travelling through on your way to CA, but perhaps that should be a consideration for you.

Many states provide a web-accessible version of their constitution and code. MIT has a nice collection of links.
posted by owhydididoit at 2:17 PM on August 13, 2006

Make sure to keep the safe out of your "grabbable area." That is, keep it away from where you could quickly retrieve something from it while driving. A safe within the realm of your "grabbable area" is relatively searchable. The best place to keep such a safe would be in the trunk of your car, so that you would have no access to it unless you got out of your car and walked around to its rear.

If you do something to tick off a law enforcement officer, it's not impossible that you could get detained and eventually a pretext could be found to open your safe. But if you are polite it is very unlikely that you would be detained that long.

Don't keep any drug paraphernelia, large bundles of money, etc., inside the car such that they could be seen by the law enforcement officer. Be polite and don't give them a reason to detain you.
posted by Mr. Justice at 3:04 PM on August 13, 2006