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MARION, Ill.—In what is probably one of the most telling comments of how some law enforcement officers run their operations, Marion’s chief of police has once again stepped in it up to his sizable rear.
Marion police chief John Eibeck
Illinois has a ridiculous new law going into effect at the beginning of the new year that allows law enforcement officers to ticket someone for tossing a cigarette butt out a car window. It’s an enhancement of an existing littering law that can be charged as a misdemeanor and a fine can be imposed, IF A PERSON IS FOUND GUILTY, of up to $1,500. Subsequent citations, like many misdemeanors in this law-crazy state, can lead to a “third-time” felony…which means, essentially, if you toss three cigarette butts out your car window and you’re caught each time, you lose your right to carry a firearm, and could go to prison, thus propping up Illinois’ prison industry.
While this new “law” is all about raising revenue in the state, the danger, above the already-listed issues, is the fact that law enforcement officers like Marion’s police chief John Eibeck are going to misuse and abuse it to gain even more revenue, make even more felons, and go the lazy route of making traffic-stop drug busts.
Quoted yesterday on the TV station WSIL, Eibeck said (after the lead-in, cleverly placed there by the staff):
The law will more likely help in situations where his department is looking to pull over a suspect. It could be used to serve a warrant or search the car.
”If you need probable cause to make a vehicle stop, then that’s basically a tool that the legislature has now given police officers to use,” said Eibeck.
Eibeck just gave away the big strategy most cops are using these days: They’re LOOKING for “probable cause” to stop some people so that they can dig around in their cars and, lo and behold, there’s some dope or paraphernalia there! Whether there is or not. Because that happens. “Make your case” often has more than one meaning.
To be fair, Eibeck did say that they weren’t going to be “be out there being the cigarette butt nazis” in the same interview. But the fact that he is listing as a strategy that the butts, like a lot of other nonsense excuses (“your license plate light is out” is one that we see used frequently…especially when it’s NOT “out”), will be used for “probable cause” is troubling.
That’s because it shows that Eibeck and his boys are abusing “probable cause.”
Here’s what probable cause IS.
A vehicle is driving erratically through town. It barely avoids making a turn without toppling over a street sign, and is swerving mightily as it travels residential streets. Cops pull this vehicle over with lots of probable cause, as they’ve observed this vehicle violating several local and state traffic codes. When the driver rolls the window down, fumes from a still-smoking meth pipe pour out. Driver and passengers are arrested.
Here is NOT what probable cause is.
A cop “thinks” he sees a driver flick a cigarette butt out a partially-rolled-down window. He pulls the “subject” over and asks if that’s what he just saw. The driver doesn’t KNOW what he just saw, but there is no cigarette smell in the car, no butts in the ashtray, no cartons or packs of cigarettes in the car, at least within sight. The officer runs a check on the driver then asks if he can search the car. The driver, knowing there’s nothing in the car that would be a problem, consents because she wants to get on. The cop searches through a messy backseat and comes up with a roach (partially-smoked marijuana cigarette). The driver, who doesn’t smoke pot or anything else, is stunned…particularly since the roach came from the cop’s pocket. But she doesn’t know that, and can’t prove that. And now, she’s screwed.
If you think that’s far-fetched, you haven’t been paying attention.
Because that’s EXACTLY what’s going on, all throughout southern Illinois.
We’re not saying it’s going on or has gone on in Marion. But we ARE saying that any police chief who believes he’s now got another excuse for “probable cause” and is stating it openly isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer.
So here’s what YOU have to do.
YOU have to be sharper than the sharpest knife.
We’ve said it before, but we’ll say it again: DON’T. EVER. GIVE. CONSENT TO SEARCH. Ever. If an officer of the law believes there’s something in your vehicle that’s against the law, he needs to cite what it is—IN A SEARCH WARRANT—or let you go. A traffic stop is not probable cause to search. A traffic stop is only cause to detain, only for as long as it takes to get the traffic ticket and move on.
We’ve also said this before, but it bears repeating: KEEP YOUR CAR CLEAN. A trashed-out vehicle is a crooked cop’s dream, because if he’s going to use drop-dope, that’s the one he’s going to use it in. That way, when he gets on the stand in court for the probable cause hearing, he can say “I looked in the back of the vehicle” to the prosecutor’s questions, and to the one that goes “And what condition was it in?” he’ll say “It was pretty much a mess, but I saw what appeared to be drug paraphernalia lying there partially covered up with papers and other objects.” Ta-daaa….probable cause. A lot more than “And what condition was it in?” and he says “It was spotless, but I happened to see…” Really? First of all he’s not going to say it’s spotless because the “spotless” cars generally aren’t going to prompt a search. We’re telling ya. We’ve sat in court and have seen this for 11 years now, over and over and over. So once a week: Clean out trash. Armorall your dash. Vacuum. Keep it CLEAN.
There are other helpful hints, but as the laws get more oppressive in Illinois, you’re going to need a degree to keep up with them. Just be aware that there are predatory police out there to try and get whatever they can out of you for their overspending bosses, the cities and counties that employ them. You are nothing but revenue. Try not to give them a better chance at extracting that from you.