What are my rights when being pulled over by the police for no reason?

hcastro — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 10:13:57 -0800

What are my rights when being pulled over by the police for no reason? On two separate occasions, over the past 2 months, I've been pulled over by local police for no apparent reason. Both times they've asked for my license and registration, returned them to me after about 5-10 minutes, and let me go without any ticket/warning. This past week my mother was pulled over in the same manner (different car). She mentioned it to our neighbor, and he reported a similar incident.

We live in an area of Philadelphia, PA that isn't too good, but that shouldn't be an excuse. They should at least have a reason to pull me over before doing so. I haven't asked any of the officers to explain themselves, because I fear the Dave Chappelle scenario (cop sprinkles crack on you). Can anyone shed some light on what type of rights I have/what I can do about this? Should I write a letter to the mayor? Police commissioner?

Thanks for your help.

-- Just to clear up some potential racial profiling responses:

-My mother and I are Hispanic, but don't necessarily look it.
-My neighbor is African-American.

Traffic Stop... and Go

Anonymous — Sat, 04 Dec 2004 23:09:52 -0800

I was recently driving and motioned by a police officer to pull over, and then told through my window to pull to the side, get out my license and registration. The officer was pulling over multiple cars, one after the other, for the same offense. I just drove off as the officer was motioning yet another car behind me. Am I in deep trouble, or is this not so bad? Should I avoid driving in the area for a few days, or is it all over?

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What are my rights when being pulled over by the police for no reason?

Traffic Stop... and Go