Colorado Profiling

[Nurrgle]

Just curious if any other Colorado folks have been profiled and pulled over based on their license plate while in Utah?

Last year I got pulled over near Goblin Valley and had my car searched. I spent 2 hours on the side of the road and then was told, hey we can smell marijuana but we can't find any, your free to go. There is no reason for my car to smell like marijuana and I didn't have anything.

This last weekend, I was taking 89 into Utah from Page and was again pulled over for speeding. I was in a group of cars that were all going 5-10 over and when he turned on his lights, four cars pulled over. I was car number two and he went around the others and pulled in behind me, the only Colorado plated car. He asked me for my info and then asked if I knew it was illegal to smoke marijuana in Utah. I replied, " I sure do, I was born in Ogden and have only been in Colorado for a few years." He left then came back and searched my car, telling me he could smell marijuana. After 30 min of searching he let me go. Obviously I was speeding, but I would guess he did not clock me, only the leader or the last car in the group.

I drive a 2011 Xterra, the only sticker is a small backcountry.com goat. I can only think that I am getting harassed because of the status of marijuana in Colorado. Honestly, my wife is pretty much done driving into Utah to backpack and I am getting close as well. As much as I love the desert, spending an hour on the side of the road getting stared at by everyone that drives by is frustrating. I should mention that I drove into Utah around 10 times last year and twice so far this year so it's not every time I am in Utah.

Anyone else have this problem??

 

[IntrepidXJ]

I spend a lot of time driving around Utah and have never been pulled over before. I typically drive 10+mph over the speed limit.

 

[toejam]

I spent many summers driving around Colorado with Texas plates. I felt profiled, although I only got pulled over by redneck cops in New Mexico & Texas.

But that sucks - it would be hard to keep your cool.

 

[Tye Dye Twins]

I was searched in sandy city, utah once. I was pulled over for going around someone making a left on a residential street. It turns out that isn't a traffic violation. I took a traffic class for a speeding ticket a few years back and we were told that is ok so long as there is a sidewalk and you don't go off the road, but the officer didn't believe me at the time.

Anyway after some time went by more and more officers were showing up. The officer came up to my car and told me "you been smoking pot?" I told them "no" and I was told to "step out of the car". They told me "Where is it? The dog will find it!" They let the dog around the car, nothing was found. Then 2 of the officers stripped my car for 30 mins with nothing to find there either. There was a comment made about my mohawk as I was let back in my car.

The next morning at 6am I got a call from the officer that pulled me over. He told me he looked up the law and I was right. He appologized for pulling me over and told me to tear up that ticket.

 

[Dave]

The next morning at 6am I got a call from the officer that pulled me over. He told me he looked up the law and I was right. He appologized for pulling me over and told me to tear up that ticket.

Sucks you were ever in the situation but it's good to hear the officer owned up to the mistake.

 

[Ben]

there have been cases of it happening in idaho. i've also been pulled over going through oregon between idaho and northern california. i got a two hundred dollar ticket for doing 55 in a 55 one time because the officer believed i was driving too fast for conditions. they searched the car after finding out where we were going. i was just picking up my brother for christmas.

 

[slc_dan]

This shit really bums me out. I wish there was better recourse for officers that profile like this. Freedom! and Merica! and stuff.

 

[gnwatts]

I have been pulled over several times by Utah cops. Sometimes they are professional, most times not. San Juan County law enforcement is at best over zealous, at worst corrupt. Once in 2000 we were driving between Monticello and Blanding with a car full of kids heading for Mule Canyon, got pulled over for going 5mph over. The officer proceeded to search me and the car, including all of the backpacks including the kids backpacks. All of this without cause. Constitution? What constitution!
My worst experience was after a trip to Arch canyon in 2007. I was driving home around mid day on a Friday, heading out of Monticello towards Moab. About 5 miles out a cop going the other direction turns around, gets behind me and flashes his lights. The very first thing he said was that he smelled marijuana. He did not even say why he pulled me over (I later found out it was for speeding-68 in a 65mph). Asked me to step out of the car, and proceeded to start searching it. I told him he could not, to please stop and that I knew my rights. He said that the judge was out of town, and any warrant for the search would have to wait until Tuesday, that he was going to impound the car, and I would have to wait and because he smelled marijuana he was taking me in for a paper strip urinalysis (the least accurate test, I should have demanded a blood test).
As an aside, you know that in Utah, if you are drug tested in a sobriety situation, and they find ANY amount of THC in your blood, you are guilty of DUI. You could have smoked 3 weeks earlier, and be arrested for DUI.
Back to my decision standing along the road, I consented to his search of my car, and the eventual urine test. He found less than 1 gram of pot in the bottom of my pack, arrested me and impounded my car. I was charged with speeding, possession, DUI. They would not give me my car back until the gas station that stored my car opened, for some reason, at 5 pm the next day (saturday).
I spent most of the day friday n the San Juan County jail, not a place I want to go back to. All of the inmates I saw there were Navajo, and most of them looked like they wanted to get back at the injustices brought upon them by the white man (rightly so). It took all of my (and my wifes) efforts to find a bail bondsman on a Friday night. $4000 later I was released.

Fast forward 4 months later. With 3 months of clean urinalysis tests in hand I go to my hearing. All of the lawyers I talked to said "give up, you were busted in the worst place for this type of offense in the country". Universally they said the DA was a fair man, but he had me, case closed. They wanted many thousands of dollars for my "defense". I found a lawyer in Moab who told me I was gong to lose, but he felt sorry for me, and would charge me $300. Done.
I was given the chance to talk to the DA before my hearing, but my lawyer said it would not help, but couldn't hurt. I was ushered into his office, nice guy. He said he had me. What did I want to say? I told him the only thing I was guilty of was speeding and possession. That I was not impaired. It had been many hours since I had smoked and when the officer tested me. I told him the officer searched my car based upon his dishonest statement that he smelled "the strong odor of marijuana". The inaccurate urine strip test showed small amounts of THC. Why did the officer NOT do a sobriety test if he thought I was impaired? Because finding pot automatically means you are impaired? He listened to me, asked me if I was finished. Then he asked me if I was willing to spend a week in Jail in exchange for dropping the DUI? I said I had been in his jail and did not think I could survive a week. He said would I be willing to spend 3 days? I said I could. Done.
We go into court and I am not feeling very well. It turned out that the judge was going to waive the jail time anyway, so I got to walk out guilty of possession but not DUI, free but $4300 less wealthy. Which was their whole gig anyway, making money.

 

[gnwatts]

After reading the above it might seem like a "poor me, look at the injustice" kind of rant.
That was not my intention.
I knew that I was taking a risk driving into Utah with marijuana. I was willing to take that risk. In reality, you don't even have to have marijuana on you, my experience was just made easier for the State Trooper because he found it. All he needed to do was lie his way into getting me arrested and into the jail so they can make me pee into the cup. What I did not expect was the level of up front, in your face corruption on the part of the State Trooper, and the throwing out of the Constitution. The lies he told, under oath, the laughing and almost high fiveing while I was being booked, the racist comments about the Navajo. Beyond all of the Constitutional issues, it was a shakedown, pure and simple. I did not step foot in Utah for 2 years after that. Try driving to San Diego and not going through Utah.
All of you Utahns' are extremely fortunate. You live in the most beautiful spot on the planet. It's just a drag that the San Juan County Sheriff is so corrupt.
That is why I like Dominguez Canyon so much......no Utah State Patrol!
Again, sorry for the rant.

 

[andyjaggy]

Utah highway Patrol were busted for sitting in parking lots in Wyoming and watching people buy alcohol and fireworks, they would then nab those people when they crossed the border back into Utah.

I don't know if that was technically illegal or not, but it certainly doesn't inspire confidence in our police force.

 

[Nurrgle]

Wow, gnwatts that is a terrifying story, one that further makes me want to start exploring Southern Colorado, Northern NM, and AZ for my desert fix. I haven't spent any time in any of those areas.

Honestly, I smoke from time to time, as I have for over 20 years. From high school, through college and my MBA, and now as a way to relax, ease stress, and allow myself to enjoy situations more freely. I would never knowingly carry anything into Utah, getting busted is not worth it to me.

I also practice LNT as much as I can. This means I often stick roaches in a small plastic bag so I can throw them away when I get back to the trail head, I wouldn't want a family to come across something I left behind like that, much like leaving a beer cans at the summit after celebrating a successful hike.

Sometimes, I will get a call from a friend and leave for a unplanned trip that night or the next morning. It is feasible for me to not clean out my pack very well, quick pack my gear and leave that night or the next morning. I would hate to get profiled and busted over something like that. It would be profiling because we wouldn't be smoking, or knowingly carrying, and they would have to use false statements to do the search.

The above hypothetical situation aside, I often have my kids with me, sometimes one of their friends as well as my dog. Just getting pulled over and searched with the kids and the dog on the side of the road is bad enough. Add in explaining to a confused parent why their child spent and hour in the sun while the guy who was responsible for her got his car searched for pot, and it is even worse.

To me this situation is even more compounded by the fact that these cops are wasting their time. Sure you could spend everyday looking for backpackers and hikers who might have a small personal amount of pot on them. They are not going to be trafficking, they are driving into or out of the desert on vacation. In my opinion, that time would be better spent looking for actual criminals who are trafficking drugs across the state or doing even worse things.

For example, take the story of the young girl from Grand Junction who died in SLC and was dropped back in the Grand Junction area in a suitcase. This just happened. They now are looking at a major drug trafficking ring that was working from Grand Junction to SLC for involvement. That ring had to have used some of the exact same roads that we are, I wonder how many times they drove past some backpacker being searched because his plate was from Colorado while smuggling large amounts of heroin, meth, and coke and the occasional dead body.

 

[Nick]

Cover your car in BYU stickers. Problem solved.

 

[Ben]

I spend a lot of time driving around Utah and have never been pulled over before. I typically drive 10+mph over the speed limit.

if you're always going 10+ over they probably just assume you're from utah.

 

[Nurrgle]

LOL, BYU stickers are a great idea.

I'll just take all the brewery stickers off my Thule and replace them with BYU/CTR stickers, best camo you could ask for.

 

[gnwatts]

I once worked with a guy who was a roadie with the Grateful Dead (I was skeptical until he showed me some pics) and one of his jobs was to procure "medicine" for the group when they toured, traveling around with Pigpen. They would place rodeo and NRA stickers on the bumper (he actually brushed up on current rodeo stars), tuck their hair under cowboy hats. They once broke down (flat) at 4am with a truck full of "medicine" in West Texas. They were picked up by a local trooper, who thought they were good ole boys, proceeded to drive them into to town, wake up his buddy, his wife fixed them breakfast while the tire was being fixed, and drove them back to their truck and they were on their way.

 

[HomerJ]

Cover your car in BYU stickers. Problem solved.

I'd rather take my chances with the cops than do that!

 

[John Goering]

Cover your car in BYU stickers. Problem solved.

Another option: A few of the large NRA stickers.

 

[Bob]

Hardly ever get pulled over and I usually drive 5 over. Panguitch in the late 1970s in my 911 Porsche was the last time, said I had to do 35 at the reduce speed sign..haha. Searched car found nothing, was coming back from Christmas in Phoenix. Couldn't tag me with anything just delayed me for about a hour. Good thing he wasn't 15 miles down the road I probably was doing around 85 mph.

Live and learn......don't carry any MJ, open containers or fireworks.....they are still illegal. Don't drive erratic. You can stereo type as 'Utah' but its any small town, remote areas of the country....
Actually the worst law I had was coming out of Jackson Wyoming near Alpine Jct......again in the Porsche and years ago.

 

[gnwatts]

Live and learn......don't carry any MJ, open containers or fireworks.....they are still illegal. Don't drive erratic. You can stereo type as 'Utah' but its any small town, remote areas of the country....

You miss the point entirely.
Don't carry any marijuana in Utah?. You don't need to. If your plates are from a state that has decriminalized it, you are profiled. The cops just need a reason to pull you over, get you to pee in a cup, and if you have smoked marijuana in the last month you are busted for DUI.

 

[Nurrgle]

Agreed, for me it is just the hassle of being hassled by the man.

I worry that my love of the Utah and the desert will end up getting me into a tough spot that could affect my professional and family life. Pot aside, it is the fact that I can be stopped and searched for no reason. Many of the people I know here in Colorado have written Utah off entirely just because they don't want to worry about being stopped and would rather head South from here or just stay local.