As criminal defense attorneys a lot of the cases we deal with all began with the same occurrence, a traffic stop. Some times these stops are initiated because a person is clearly driving impaired and needs to be stopped, other times the stop was due to a minor infraction or maybe there was no offense at all in reality but the stop ends up being much more serious because of how the investigation went. The one thing we tell our clients most often is don’t talk to the police, and this doesn’t mean we are trying to thwart justice or deceive law enforcement we just realize the trouble that people get themselves into because they are trying to explain themselves or talk their way out of a situation.
The Stop
When a police officer makes a stop they must have a reason, they must have either witnessed a violation or have reason to believe a violation has occurred. Once they have initiated the stop they can only detain a person as long as it takes to investigate that violation unless they have some reason to have a reasonable suspicion to extend the scope of the stop. Going along with this one of the common misconceptions people have is that they must let an officer search their car, which is not true, and refusing to let an officer search your car cannot produce reasonable suspicion allowing them to extend the stop.
St. George Criminal Defense Attorney
It is important that you understand your rights and understand the liberty that living in this country affords you. Without a knowledge of your rights it is easy to allow law enforcement officers to ignore those rights and infringe on them. If you have been charged with a crime as a result as traffic stop, or any other circumstance and you are looking for a criminal defense attorney in St. George then call St George Criminal Defense Lawyer today.