--Thrasymachus in Plato's The Republic
Summer is a popular season for taking vacations. Perhaps your summer in Utah involves a conference, festival, sightseeing, volunteering, or just relaxation. But while you’re enjoying your summer, you might have a life-changing encounter with a member of the law enforcement community. Do you know how to exercise your rights in such a situation?
The Flex Your Rights Foundation has created a great resource with its web site, FlexYourRights.org, which includes helpful video clips showing you how to conduct yourself during an encounter with a police officer during a traffic stop.
Please spend a few minutes watching these video clips. And then practice what is said in the video clips in front of your mirror, or while your on the road with your fellow vacationers.
I spend a significant amount of time in my law practice reviewing police reports and video tapes generated by the members of Utah’s law enforcement community. And I cringe when I read or see how my clients compromised their rights during their conversations with police officers, when a different decision by my clients could have led to a different outcome.
Most of us aren’t taught how to exercise our rights when encountering a police officer … other than to behave obediently.
(And most of us won’t be lucky enough to get pulled over near Big Water, Utah, where Libertarian and former Mayor Willy Marshall permitted me to use my prosecutorial discretion as the town attorney to dismiss cases where there was no victim.)
Utah’s judges have seen plenty of interesting cases involving traffic stops that led to criminal charges for peaceful behavior. To become familiar with your options if you are threatened with arrest for not consenting to a search, I encourage you to read the facts of some of these cases to see that there are worse outcomes than simply being arrested.
Many Utahns have lost their liberty – for a long time – and more, after a traffic stop.
But a traffic stop doesn’t have to turn into a search of your vehicle, an arrest, or a conviction on your criminal record, if you not only know what to do to protect your liberty … but also flex your rights.
Adapted from an essay originally published on August 1, 2005.
