First off, great video. Second, I'd like to add my little encounters to the record.
While pulling out of a driveway I cut off a police officer, who then turns on his lights and pulled me over. I had in my car three friends and about half an oz of niceness. I told my friends to stay in the car and offer no comments, I even told them I wouldn't drive them anywhere if they didn't listen to me.
The police were slow to get out of the car, so I grabbed my license/reg/insur. (held together in a handy paperclip) and stepped out to meet them. They ordered me to get back in my car. I instead asked them why i was being stopped. They made mention of wreckless driving, and asked who was in the car. I told them the names of the poeple in the car, and they asked some more 'exploratory' questions, whare was i going?, why was i in a hurry?,ect. I didn't answer those questions, I simply asked if they were going to give me a ticket. They didn't answer, and instead asked more questions. Can they search the car? I said 'nope'. They asked 'why you got a dead body in there'. I said 'nope just got done reading book on the constitution, wanna to see if I really did have the right to refuse a search'
It wasn't long after that ,that they allowed me to leave, without even a ticket.
I have been stopped a number of times, sometimes by the same officers. I find that once you assert your rights, you get a sort of reputation among them. In a later stop after refuseing to allow a search the second officer actually preempted my answer by saying to the first officer, 'he one of those constitutionalists', It became old hat and not suspicious at all for me to refuse to allow a search. tens years later and perhaps a dozens stops. Most officers know me and don't even ask anymore. On top of that they are extremely cautious about how they proceed.
Recently we had a party, and the police arrived. I went to the curb to meet the officers, when they found out it was me, and saw that the front door had closed behind me, they didn't even bother getting out of the car. just said 'keep it down, and keep it safe' and left.
Some officers are constantly trying to 'catch you' if you become known as a 'smart guy' or 'constitutionalist' but hey, they're the same officers that would try and catch you if you weren't.
I must say After my party I've been invited to many more, and elected to speak on behalf of the home-owner too. to date no officer has dragged away any member of our parties, regardless of the party favors.
simply replace the words the officers usually says to you with these words and you'll be fine
Officer 'I need you to help me' = 'Your rights prevents me from investigating you unless you wave them.'
Officer 'Just wanna look to see you don't have (insert)' =' If I find anything I can charge you with , your going to jail'
Officer 'Can I check to see everyone is alright' = 'I wanna see if I can find something to charge you with, or use as leverage to get you to wave your rights'
Don't reason with an officer, they will often try to get you to 'explain' on the premise that if its a good explanation they might let you go. The only time they let you go is if they don't have enough evidence, not when they have plenty.
There are a few cases where an officer might let you slide, but ask youself this are you willing to bet 1 yr,5yr,10yrs of your life on it?