Two Plus Two Older Archives - Just got pulled over while walking

4am this evening, my buddy and I were walking and talking. We do this maybe 3-5 times a week, depending on availability and amount of stuff to talk about. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

We tend to get pulled over a lot, which is both time consuming and stressful, but understandable. Basically, walking at night is atypical and therefore cops will pull you over just for being outside. It bugs me, but it's life.

BTW, I live in Canada.

About a month ago I read an article in The Post about a case heard by the Nation Supreme Court: a boy, aged 15, in Edmonton had been pulled over by cops and searched. It was found that there was no basis for their arrest or their search, and the charges (Marijuana possession) were overturned.

Furthermore, in the article it stated that the legal definition of arrest, in Canada, is (approximately) "any time that you either can not leave in the presense of a police officer or feel as though you can not leave."

(I'm sure this can be expanded to consider civilian arrest.)

So, being sick and tired of being pulled over all the time, I decided to try this out.

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A police car pulled up to us, we walked over and I said, "Good evening officer."

He asked where we were going and I replied, "No comment." He asked where we were coming from and I again replied, "No comment."

He got pretty pissed, saying that if there were two people out walking at 4am there'd better be a comment, and that we were required to give him answers and stuff. I basically kept to my "no comment" line during this exchange, even though he was swearing at us and calling us "dicks".

I was pretty surprised by the lack of professionalism and the amount of confrontation shown by the officer (whereas I was being really polite and my expression was really neutral).

He got out of his car nearly immediately. He asked me at one point to take my hands out of my pockets. I don't think they're legally allowed to command you to do this, but because I didn't want him to feel as though he was in physical danger, I obliged him.

Near the very start of the conversation, he asked me to put my hands on the hood of the squad car. I looked him in the eyes and basically explained that I felt uncomfortable with the situation, that I wanted to leave, that the legal definition of arrest is whether or not I can leave or if I feel as though I can't leave, and asked if I could leave. He said no. I asked if I was under arrest. He said no. He asked if I was in Law and Securities at school, I replied "No comment." He asked if I worked, I replied, "No comment."

He again called us dicks for not answering questions and not allowing him to "investigate a complaint" (we'd seen no one during our walk, so we're not sure if there really was one), and not identifying ourselves. He'd never asked that, so I told him that I'd be willing to identify myself.

He asked if I had ID and I said no, (legally, you're only required to give them your name and address, and in practice you generally wait for them to run the information through their system). He took down our names and called it in. I mentioned that I hadn't seen anyone and asked him if there was someone he was looking for. He replied, "How about this? No comment."

After our named came back that indeed we were citizens of Canada and such, he let us go, not before lecturing us (calling us dicks multiple times during this lecture) on not being dicks, basically. I told him that he shouldn't talk like that and that he should conduct himself professionally. He started to say something but stopped, and I further stated that I was a citizen, and was conducting myself as a citizen, but that he was a professional. He told us to leave, and I told him (again, politely) to have a good night as we left.

I swear to God there were no mocking tones used. I was pretty nervous: enough that I almost cracked a smile once because of the adrenaline, but I managed to keep it down and keep my face neutral the whole time.

So, if you're in Canada, and you're pulled over, unless you've been caught doing something retarded (and would therefore be looking for leniency), this is a decent MO if you feel as though your privacy has been invaded and don't particularly desire to co-operate.

I see it as having negative consequences if at a later date you require assistance from the police and they won't give it to you, which could happen, or if they catch you later and decide to max the fines or whatnot on whatever they can.

It took a while, but not much longer than a standard interview (at least, not much longer than an interview in which they take and process your ID).

--Dave.