First and foremost I want to say that I am not here to bash any cops, but wanted to get some opinions on something that happened to me and a friend tonight.
My friend and I were driving to a local store, my friend was driving and not wearing a seatbelt. I was wearing my seatbelt and riding in the passenger seat right. ISP unmarked car pulls us over. My friend keeps a pistol in his glove box where his registration is also located. Officer asks my friend for license and registration. My friend hands him his license and informs officer that his registration is in the glove box and there is also a loaded firearm in the glove box as well. Officer asks for his carry permit, which my friend supplies. My friend asks officer if he would like to get the registration or allow the officer to grab it. Officer informs my friend that he will get the registration himself. Officer then walks around the front of the truck and I open my door and open the glove box for the officer to retrieve the registration. Here is where it got interesting. Officer reaches into the glove box and grabs both the gun and the registration. I started to ask the officer what he was doing, but he was already started towards his car. During no time did my friend give permission to the officer to take possession of the firearm nor did I. Officer is back in the car writing a ticket to my friend for failure to wear a safety belt. Officer comes back to the driver side of truck and hands the ticket to my friend. He also hands him the magazine from the pistol. I ask the officer why he took the pistol from the truck, his response was "I had to run it to make sure it wasn't stolen". I then got a little upset and asked why he thought it was stolen. His response was I run guns all the time to make sure they are not stolen. I asked him what kind of probable cause he had to think that it was stolen and this was just a seatbelt stop. He told me if I had a problem with it to talk to his supervisor then walked back to his car. I don't know the laws as good as some of you probably do, but this absolutely ticked me off. Is this something that I should report to his supervisor, was I in the wrong on questioning this whole scenario? BTW, when the officer retrieved the hand gun from the glove box he muzzle swept both of my lower legs.
My friend and I were driving to a local store, my friend was driving and not wearing a seatbelt. I was wearing my seatbelt and riding in the passenger seat right. ISP unmarked car pulls us over. My friend keeps a pistol in his glove box where his registration is also located. Officer asks my friend for license and registration. My friend hands him his license and informs officer that his registration is in the glove box and there is also a loaded firearm in the glove box as well. Officer asks for his carry permit, which my friend supplies. My friend asks officer if he would like to get the registration or allow the officer to grab it. Officer informs my friend that he will get the registration himself. Officer then walks around the front of the truck and I open my door and open the glove box for the officer to retrieve the registration. Here is where it got interesting. Officer reaches into the glove box and grabs both the gun and the registration. I started to ask the officer what he was doing, but he was already started towards his car. During no time did my friend give permission to the officer to take possession of the firearm nor did I. Officer is back in the car writing a ticket to my friend for failure to wear a safety belt. Officer comes back to the driver side of truck and hands the ticket to my friend. He also hands him the magazine from the pistol. I ask the officer why he took the pistol from the truck, his response was "I had to run it to make sure it wasn't stolen". I then got a little upset and asked why he thought it was stolen. His response was I run guns all the time to make sure they are not stolen. I asked him what kind of probable cause he had to think that it was stolen and this was just a seatbelt stop. He told me if I had a problem with it to talk to his supervisor then walked back to his car. I don't know the laws as good as some of you probably do, but this absolutely ticked me off. Is this something that I should report to his supervisor, was I in the wrong on questioning this whole scenario? BTW, when the officer retrieved the hand gun from the glove box he muzzle swept both of my lower legs.