I know you said forget the alcohol part, but the writer is mixing together two separate things: 1) Pulling you over 2) Providing breath samples

1) Pulling you over
There is always a reason to pull a car over. It's simply check the driver and insurance of the vehicle, it's in a MVA. So with that any car can be pulled over. There is also caselaw in the CCC that allows checks for driver sobriety (not the same as providing breath samples), this allows road blocks. Remember this is only the initial reason for pulling you over, after that other stuff comes up which is fair game. Stuff in plain view, other offences, warrants, whatever

2) Breath Samples
Before the breath sample can be demanded, the officer needs to have reasonable grounds to believe you have alcohol in your body. He didn't have the grounds until he pulled you over for reasons listed in #1, after talking to you he got the grounds and that is all legal


As for randomly running plates on their computer system, there is no charter breach there. Obviously if they run your plate and find nothing why would they pull you over and waste their time. They run it and find something, then look into it further. Could be something real simple as you a young male driving your mom's car, registered in her name. Cop sees a male driving car registered to a female, wants to know if legit, not stolen. Thats there job to look for offences, if they're not running plates while patroling why as a tax payer are you paying them to drive around aimlessly. It would be ridiculous to say if criminals can drive perfectly they can't be pulled over.

True, BUT if some guy who looks 'just like you' committed a crime down the street.. and the cops see you.. and you can't prove your identity.. they can arrest you and hold you until such time that you can prove your identity. And we all know.. Metro Vancouver is full of criminals doing bad stuff all over.. so you're never far from crime no matter where you are.

EDIT: http://www.revscene.net/forums/do-ha...617318.htmlfor reference. we've already talked about this.. stop taking the thread off topic.

Better to be safe than sorry.

Besides.. if you get run down.. or someone attacks and kills you.. and you have no ID on you.. you become the next page 3 story in the newspaper (guy killed in Langley, police cannot identify the victim..). What if someone needs to contact your family and you can't speak? Great idea.

Sew your name into your underwear. Mine is Calvin Klein.

LOTS of mis-information in this thread, especially from bigzz786786, who maybe should have paid more attention in class or who's teachers should have done a better job in their studies.

We are allowed, under the Motor Vehicle Act, to conduct a traffic stop with any vehicle on the road to confirm valid insurance and driver licence status. As has been mentioned, anything that is found coming from that is fair game (warrants, odour of drugs/liquor, weapons/drugs/etc in plain view).

A search of the vehicle must have consent of the driver, OR (not "and") must be a legally based search (under the CC, CDSA, LCLA, plain view doctrine, incident to arrest, etc). We also have authority to do inspections of a vehicle under the Fisheries Act and must be articulated as such, just like for any search.

We are not allowed to stop random pedestrians walking along the sidewalk and ask for identification unless they are being detained for investigation. We can always stop and talk to someone, there is nothing preventing us from doing that, and if we ask for ID, the person can always say "no", unless they're being detained.

Close to there ya. I was on kingsway and turned left onto slocan, he pulled over 2 blocks later and began following me

i did give the wrong information, my last post at the bottom of the first page show i apologized to the OP and gave another link to show that they can pull us over for valid insurance and license

maybe you taking "random" turns in residential neighborhoods gave him something to be suspicious about? since this is what drug smugglers/dealers do to make sure no one is following them etc. (from DEA on Spike)

And this is only common sense, since you ARE REQUIRED to HAVE valid insurance and a valid driver's license to be driving on public roads.

Funny how "common sense" escapes so many, though...

Hey, please read the whole post instead of skimming or assuming. I said it was my route going home.

sorry if that sounded wrong but yea i agree with you, you were on your normal way home...but the officer did not know this at the time (just throwin a possible reason out there:p)
and i also agree he should have a reason to pull you over not just do it randomly but i guess its for the good of the community :p

I don't know of the actual law so I'm not going to try to sound smart, jump to conclusions, and use big words that I don't normally use ...

I've had two different stories that happened to me:

First time, I was driving at around 3:30am with four people in the car. (I only had my N, and my other friend who drove ended up drinking) and as I drove past an intersection, I see a cop to my right waiting to turn left onto the direction I was coming from, so I instinctively braked in a not so abrupt manner, but the cop ends up cutting to the right lane to take a right instead, and starts to follow me. The cop followed me all the way to my friend's complex, then stopped following me after I turned in.

From that story it seems like that maybe the police can't pull over a car randomly? At that time I was driving completely by the book as if I was taking a driver's test.

The second story was that one time I was sitting in my car at the dyke with a female friend at around midnight once with a lot of other cars around, then a cop rolls up and shines his search light right in my face. I thought at the time that maybe I got busted for having front tint. Then the cop comes up to talk to me, to ask if I had been "smoking dope". I answered no, which was the truth, then he gave me a look as if he didn't believe me and said "Come on, I know what you kids do nowadays" I laughed and told him I was being completely honest, he then laughed and told me to take it easy and to have a good night.

I know that this isn't considered a random "search" nor a random instance of pulling me over, cause I was already stopped. But is there maybe a reason as to why I was the only car that got talked to by the officer? I completely understand if he wanted to check for people doing drugs/drinking then driving at the dyke, but why me? Did somebody call the cops on me randomly?

Maybe the officers here on the forum can shine a light on this?

Thanks!

^ From your first story, I'd guess that the officer got an unrelated call that resulted in him/her needing to take the route you took. My reasoning being that, as posted above, you can be pulled over to check your license or registration at any time.

For the OP, your car may have matched the description of one the police have been looking for. I know of someone who used to get pulled over a lot, seemingly at random. He later found out that a guy who had the same make/model/colour car was running drugs.

Please re-read this:

You're not allowed in Richmond parks/park areas after 11pm, including along Dyke Rd on the south side, and River Rd on the north side. It is a Richmond City Bylaw. People (males, females, young, old) frequently go there to commit the criminal act of indecent exposure (see Sec 173-175 CC), drink, do drugs, do drug deals, look at the stars, etc etc etc. Police frequent those same places to prevent the occurrences mentioned before "look at the stars, etc". :thumbsup:

+1 to this. I've been there just hanging out with friends a few times, and a cop or two just rolls up, talks to everybody and leaves

You can be told to leave since the park is closed. As long as you aren't doing anything against the law, generally they won't mind if you're just hanging out in your car looking at stars or something from what i've experienced. The only times i've seen cops kick people out of parks or beaches or whatever is when there were people drinking or something, then they'll just tell everybody to leave

Its called a Routine Traffic Check.

+Plus, you took the police car for a ride around the block, with no obvious direction. You gave him suspicion (not probable cause) to pull you over.

Under MVA, there is no written phrases that indicate that the peace officer has to have probable cause to stop a vehicle for identification purposes. Peace officers only require a probable cause if they want to search or arrest you (or your vehicle) as per s79 of MVA.

I've had a cop stop me and talk to me while I was walking on the street. He said I matched the description of someone shoplifting nearby and asked me some questions. He did ask for my ID and I consented and basically it took like 5 mins and then he thanked me and let me go. I guess in my case, it wasn't random since he said I matched a description and he was just checking, but he could have said anything I guess.