Corrupt cop gets busted (probably old)

http://www.mediatakeout.com/2009/37...ht_it_all_on_his_hidden_dashboard_camera.html


Cop gets all corrupt until he realizes the kid is videotaping the whole thing.

Suspension and firing of Sgt. James Kuehnlein

On September 7, 2007, Brett Darrow, a St. Louis City resident, created an Internet sensation after posting an online video of an encounter with St. George police Sgt. James Kuehnlein. In the video, Kuehnlein approaches Darrow while he waits in a parked car in a commuter parking lot. When Darrow asks Kuehnlein whether he did anything wrong, the officer orders Darrow out of the car and threatens to fabricate charges and arrest him.

Darrow told the news media that he pulled into the commuter lot to meet a friend. When the officer asked him for identification, Darrow said he didn't immediately present it because he believed the officer stopped him without probable cause. After the video gained popularity on the Internet, Kuehnlein was suspended without pay. In response, St. George Police Chief Scott Uhrig said, "I was very displeased when I saw the actions on the video."

The press later revealed that Sgt. Kuehnlein had been previously arrested for assault and stealing, and in late September, he was fired by the city's Board of Aldermen in a 5-0 vote.

You don't need probable cause to pull someone over. You do need probable cause to search but this guy wasn't being searched.

You do have to provide identification.

An officer can't fabricate charges in order to arrest a person though.

Yeah, this story is a bit old now (how time flies...eh?)

a) "reasonable cause" defines when a police officer may order a traffic stop

b) "probable cause (to believe a crime is being committed)" is needed to do a search of person or property without consent of the person being searched

c) You do need to provide identification when operating a motor vehicle.

You do not have to provide identification otherwise, though you can be required to "identify yourself" in most encounters with police

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Good to see a Happy Ending to the cited story. While one need not neccesarily equip their vehicles with premeditation to record encounters with police as the person in this video clip did, it's likely sensible to record any encounters with police if at all possible.