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I’m all alone on highway 82 headed toward Montgomery Tuesday night when I top a hill and see a police car sitting in an empty parking lot. Of course I immediately check my speed, and I’m only about 7mph over. No problem. I just keep going. I’ve never been one who immediately jams the brakes when I see a cop. I check my rear view mirror and what do you know, he’s pulling out behind me. Still no problem. I drop to about 5mph over and keep going. By now he’s right on my tail, so I look at the road ahead trying to anticipate where he’ll hit the lights. There’s a large, almost truck stop type store ahead. That’s the spot. I don’t slow down, but prepare mentally to pull in. Just before we get to the entrance of the parking lot he hits the lights.

Do You Know Why I Pulled You Over?

Of course I’m not going to start guessing. I’ll just let him tell me. It’s because one of my tag lights is blown. Ok, this should be quick. He’ll give me a verbal warning and I’ll be on my way. He checks my insurance and takes my license back to his car. This isn’t going to cost much time at all. I’ll be able to make it up when I hit I-85. After a few minutes two more officers show up. What? Ok, they just saw a fellow officer with someone pulled over in the middle of the night, and they are just stopping for support. No big deal: until one of them walks up to my passenger door and the other two come to the driver’s side and ask me to get out.

Was I Just Profiled?

The officer in charge of the scene, as he put it, brought me back to his car and explained that there has been an increase in drugs being transported between Tuscaloosa, Montgomery, and Auburn. So here I am around midnight heading from Tuscaloosa to Lee County with several bags in the front of my truck and a couple of gas cans and bags in the back of the truck. My truck and license are from Lee County and I’m coming from Tuscaloosa on a road that’s become a popular drug route. So the police just took some facts about criminals and compared those facts to what they saw. Yep, I was profiled. It’s ok though. I completely support profiling. Why is it wrong to say “A big purple elephant just broke a law; we need to check big purple elephants”?

The Drug Search Begins

The officer went through the whole “it’ll be easier to confess now rather than lying and having us find something” speech. I told him that I was completely comfortable with them searching my belongings. So I stood at the police car talking to this officer while the other two combed through my bags, under the seats, in the dash, under the floor mats, etc. I was somewhat amused watching them. The whole time they are intensely searching with the the demeanor that something could be found under the next t-shirt, and the whole time I know that there’s no chance of them finding anything. I’m not mocking them, I just found it amusing.

How Do I Feel?

After finding nothing, the officers left everything like they found it. They didn’t leave any bags dumped out or anything else messed up. They returned my license and pocket knife that they had held during the search. Two of the three were friendly and told me to have a good night, drive safe, get the tag light repaired, etc. The other officer seemed a little gung-ho and disappointed that they didn’t find anything. He just stood in the background with his arms crossed. Now here’s the question: did I feel like I had been wrongly searched? Was I harassed? I say absolutely not! I’m ok being inconvenienced for thirty or forty minutes knowing that these guys are trying to stop drug trafficking. Here’s exactly how I feel: I have a brother who’s in his last year of an 11 year sentence for drugs. I have a sister whose death was indirectly related to drugs. (She wrecked while going to visit someone in jail for drugs) I have my own zero tolerance policy for drugs. Here it is as simple as I can say it: You bring drugs in my house, vehicle, around my family, or try to sell to my kids, and you will be the one calling the police to come to your rescue.

To the officers who searched my truck; thank you.