Stopped by Police- Downtown Northville

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I was walking around downtown tonight for about 45 mins with my dog. I was walking down the street about to turn left when a cop came up and shined me with his light. I just stared at him and kept walking. He did it for about 15 seconds and started to also turn left and asked me, "open carry" I responded with yes. He said, let me pull over and we can talk. I said ok.

He got out of his car and just said they got a call about a man walking his dog with an openly carried handgun. He asked to see my ID and I told him I'd rather not do that. He replied with, well I need a name to write down that I spoke to someone. I said Kevin. In which he said "Kevin Pouget, you ride around here on your motorcycle don't you"? I said uhhhhh yeah. No idea how he knows my name except for the fact I walked past a few people I went to high school with who may have been the callers...but this was about 15 mins prior to the stop.

After I told him yeah, he said ok thanks. And that was it. When I walked away another cop pulled up next to him and they talked

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Not bad! Glad to hear it went well.

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Welcome to OCDO!! (open carry dot org)

Glad to hear things went smoothly. Well done on not providing an ID document!

Not to be offensive or anything, but I do not see the elements of a stop. It seems the whole thing was consensual just from theinformation given.

If this was entirely consensual, then a more descriptive word would be "encounter" or "contact."

The word "stop" means involuntary in the context of a police encounter. Short for Terry Stop meaning an involuntary detention by police as discussed in the US Supreme Court case Terry v Ohio. The following words have the same meaning:Terry Stop, detention, detainment, stop.

I mention all this because when I read the thread title I said to myself, "Damn, another one in Michigan?" And expected to read about another illegal detention.

I was pleasantly surprised, though.

Will you be following through with a formal complaint against the idea that a human being exercising the basic human right to self-defense warrants investigation and contact by police?

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I forgot words are everything. So no, it was not a stop. Just a consensual conversation.

If he asked to talk, what would you guys have said?

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If they want to talk, then Ill talk with them, (picking my words carefully), but if I feel its going to cross into an investigation, I would change the subject. If that doesnt work, then you can be very sure he is fishing, and you should say as little as politely possible, while seeking every opportunity to depart. Dont seem overly anxious to leave, you dont want to feed the chase instinct any more than you have to. Stay confident.

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I am just throwing this out there.....but...when he asked ur name you coulda said "Law Abiding Citizen" LOL:lol::lol:

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Pouget wrote:

SNIP If he asked to talk, what would you guys have said?

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"No offense, officer. I know you are probably just doing your job. But, I do not want to talk with you without my attorney." I used a variation on that to good effect on a cop a year or so ago.

The key is politeness and the disarming nature of the preamble. Just hang the preamble on the front of whatever you say--no consent to a search, no consent to an encounter. Not every time you speak, of course. But, at the beginning, and as needed with a little variation so you don't sound like a broken record. Mid-encounter, if I felt I needed to include a preamble, I might change to, "Nothing personal officer, but..."

Also, you can soften the refusal a little by changing the time. I do not consent to a search becomes, when you change the time, "I would not consent to a search." Essentially, even though the cop asked for your consent in the present, you are saying you would not consent to one in the future. It means the same thing during the conversation, but is just that little bit indirect. I've used this to good effect ona cop, too.

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SlowDog wrote:

I am just throwing this out there.....but...when he asked ur name you coulda said "Law Abiding Citizen" LOL:lol::lol:

Click to expand...

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the officer knowing your name and throwing it out could be a jedi mind trick mental tactic like a "we are watching you". similar trick cops use when they see a prostitute is to throw out coins in the street by them to say "i know what you're doing" and an insult to them at the same time.
my encounter with walled lake officer - he knew my name and said he was just at my house.

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That's as close to perfect as I could ask. Perfect being a drive by but no interaction at all. Nice to know Northville has respectful, knowledgeable officers.

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I think it went very well and I do not think he had that big of a problem without my ID. However, by him saying he needs a name for the report and trying to con me into it, was the worst part. Other than that, he seemed very good about the encounter.