Q: What is probable cause for a cop to search your car and make you perform a field sobriety test
A cop pulled up behind me while i was sitting in my car talking to my girlfriend. He made me and my girlfriend get out of my car and wanted to search my car and made me perform a field sobriety test. He did not pull me over while i was driving, we had just gotten in the car and were about to leave my house. He said his reason was because my car was idling for more than 3 minutes, which he also has no way of knowing how long i was idling for because he wasn’t there for longer than 3 minutes. He had us out of the car for about an hour and the whole time his car was idling. Is what he did legal?
A: Each case is fact dependent, just because your car was on for over 3 minutes does give him the right to stop you as it is a violation of the law,but not the right to test you for a DWI, he would have needed some other articulable reason.
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