I'm putting this in Politics rather than Law since there are serious political issues involved.
About six weeks ago DD's BF went to the airport to pick her up from her job around 9pm. As he approached the front of the terminal he was doing about 30mph in a 25. He stopped to wait for DD and an airport security person approached. Asked if he knew how fast he was going. BF said he didn't know, maybe about 30. Security said "Closer to 45. Can we search your car?"
BF said no, it's not my car. It's my GF's and I'm here to pick her up from work.
Security repeated the request to search and another officer approached.
BF repeated that he does not consent to a search since it is not his car. Second officer says that since he is driving, he has assumed responsibility for the vehicle. BF says that when his GF comes out in a minute she can consent, but that he is not going to do so.
Security asks hims to step out of the car. He does. Second officer starts to search. BF asks if he is under arrest. They say no, step to the back of the car. BF moves to the back of the car and repeats "I have not consented to the search of this car. Are you sure I'm not under arrest?"
They laugh and say they are airport security, they have a lot of important people that come to this airport, and they can do what they want.
Nothing is found, but for a lighter that ask about. "I smoke." says BF.
He's issued a ticket for 40 in a 25 and told that had he consented they probably wouldn't have ticketed him. He went to court yesterday, had it reduced to 26 in a 25 and paid $150 court costs.
Today I see this:
Quote:Highway checkpoint asks drivers for blood, saliva
Travelers outraged by private research group's request
source: WorldNet Dailey
Motorists in Colorado are expressing outrage over a weekend stunt in Gilpin County, about an hour's drive west of Denver, where highway checkpoints were set up so a private organization could ask for samples of blood and saliva.
"I don't think they're authorized to do what they're doing, and I view it as a gross violation of law-enforcement protocol," Roberto Sequeira, 51, told reporters for the Denver Post.
He said he and his wife were "detained" for about 15 minutes even after they protested they wanted to get home because of a sleepy child in their car.
Sheriff's officials were apologizing after they helped set up and run five separate checkpoints over the weekend.
They said workers for the Institute for Research and Evaluation were overly persistent in their demands of innocent travelers.
"It was like a telemarketer that you couldn't hang up on," Under sheriff John Bayne told the newspaper.
Sgt. Bob Enney said the deputies' assistance to the organization involved stopping motorists at the sites along Colorado Highway 119 for "surveys" on any drug or alcohol use. Surveyors also requested that motorists submit to breath, blood and saliva tests.
Enney said several hundred motorists were tested, and some later complained.
Sequeira said he repeatedly asked if the questioners were law enforcement officials and said he was not interested in participating in the study, but still was not given clearance to leave.
He told the newspaper that he and his family were approached by two researchers, and even after his repeated refusals, officials offered his wife, who was driving, $100 to get the couple to take part in a breath test.
"I think it's very dangerous," he told the newspaper. "Sometimes at checkpoints, unfortunate things happen."
PIRE spokeswoman Michelle Blackston told WND the deputies "did not stop" any drivers. "It was a voluntary survey.
Nobody approached them. There were signs saying that a survey was taking place. Nobody waved them down."
She said she was unaware whether the private organization reimbursed the county for the expense of having the deputies at the traffic sites. The organization's own researchers get the results of the work, she said.
Also to the newspaper, PIRE officials defended their actions. They said such statistics are important to gauge the impact of laws and enforcement policy. Their questions began over the summer and will continue at other locations around the nation through November, they said.
"We've been literally surveying thousands of people," John Lacey, of the Alcohol, Policy and Safety Research Center, said. It's through that organization PIRE is doing its research.
He said researchers push a few of those who initially refuse to participate to reconsider - even offering incentives.
"If we don't do that, the criticism will come out that we had so many who were refusers," Lacey told the newspaper.
Bayne said a similar study was done in the county several years ago, with no complaints, but he admitted last weekend's effort was aggressive.
"The people were too persistent," he told the Post. "Some people didn't feel it was voluntary."
Officials with the Colorado chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said the fact that sheriff's deputies were on the scene, and surveyors wore blue jumpsuits, could have confused drivers.
Sequeira said his family was directed by sheriff's officials to pull over and he and his wife were greeted by "youthful, college" surveyors.
"We had a 10-year-old in the back who's tired, we tell them thanks but no thanks, we have to get this child back home to bed," he told the paper. But the workers persisted, telling them they would be provided help driving home if needed. Then they offered the $100.
"We say, 'No thank you, we have to get our child home,'" he recalled. "At this point, both clones start chortling at us and ridiculing us."
On a newspaper forum, the opinion was running fairly close to unison:
"The very act of pulling a motorist over subjects him/her and their vehicle (at very least) to a visual search. This means if the motorist was pulled over without suspicion of violating a law, than (sic) they have been subjected to an unlawful search
," wrote Warren Gregory.
"For the record the proper response to ANY such incursion into privacy is to ask the question, Am I under Arrest? If the answer is no ask if you are free to go. If you are told no demand to be arrested or you will leave and then leave," added Frank Vicek.
Now, I realize that is
sourced as World Net Dailey so I checked further and found
And found This, too.
What are people thinking when they consent to this crap? Is this allowed? Was what the airport security did legal? With that many people consenting to blood and saliva collection, is it no wonder we find our country in the condition it is in?