Q: My friends and I pulled into our hotel in ocean city Maryland, and without even having any of our alcohol in sight, a...
cop approached us as we were outside of the van, first asking how old we all were, and then claimed that she knows we have alcohol in the vehicle. She stated that we could make it easy and just get the alcohol out and dump it, or that they could take a different route. My friend driving the van is 19, I’m 18, and my other friends who were along are 19, 18, 17, and 17. We never did anything wrong (other than obviously having possession of alcohol while underage) that would’ve provoked the officer to engage in conversation with us and start intimidating a couple teenagers and make us walk right into their plan. There was literally no possible way for the officer to know we had alcohol, as it was in the Stow N’ Go compartment of the van under the floor mats. I’m not sure if there is anything wrong with the way this played out but it seems as though the officer had no right to stop us and do what she did. Any information on this topic would be valuable, thank you.
A:
The post states that the 6 underage people (all of whom were under 21 and some of whom were under 18) actually had alcohol, though seems to think there was "no possible way" an officer could have known. Perhaps this doesn't give the officer enough credit. The post does not seem to describe any kind of impermissible search or seizure, but only lawful policing. Police can lawfully approach and ask questions. They can also make reasonable common sense deductions, e.g., observe if alcohol is on someone's breath, watch how people are behaving, speaking, etc.
The 4th Amendment prevents unreasonable searches and seizures. There are whole textbooks devoted to what kinds of stops, searches and seizures are permissible and I won't try to go into everything in this response. Very generally, however, not every interaction needs a warrant. Very rarely is a police officer prevented from initiating a conversation, and often the conversation can go further. It is entirely possible that the officer had enough justification to do what the law calls a Terry stop, based on a famous court case called Terry v. Ohio.
It is encouraging that you are seeking to gain knowledge from this experience. The best information to gain might not be strictly legal. It is a mature thing to realize that alcohol can wreck serious havoc (both on people over and under lawful age). It can seem harmless enough to imbibe at 17 or 18 (and having lived those years I can recall) but drinking early only increases the risk of bad things down the road. For instance, NIAAA research showed that people who started drinking as teens were "50% more likely to become alcohol dependent as adults." That statistic may not seem to mean anything when hanging out with friends, but alcohol plays a role in thousands of deaths of people under 21 each year. Maybe pouring out the liquor saved someone in the long run, even if it seemed to crush the temporary plans for fun.
While the above is not legal advice, and other attorneys may have different opinions, I hope that it helps answer some of your questions.
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