Have to remember traffic enforcement has turned into revenue generation. Will they make or lose money trying to “prove” their point.

Under the Atwater case, cops can arrest you for the most minor traffic offenses. Once they arrest you they can do everything they can’t do in an ordinary traffic stop: including a full inventory search of your car, and an invasive pat down of your body.

So, if you do get pulled over for a real traffic violation, your judgment has to be–is it worth my while to get arrested just to prove a point. Maybe it is. But you should do it with the awareness that you just might spend a few hours at the police station on a Friday night.

To give an example: I was driving a restored classic muscle car with expired tags and was pulled over by bored Virginia cops who were clearly looking for drugs in the hopes they could confiscate the car. They made me get out of the car, did a full pat down, and a complete interior and trunk search. I let them do it, even though it was illegal–because I had a sneaking suspicion that if I refused, they would simply arrest me for expired tags, and then take me down to the station and (legally) do the same search anyway. As I was out for dinner on a weekend night with my girlfriend, that wasn’t much of an option for me.