Ok so here’s another story to comment on. As of last night, I’ve been officially warned by the local authorities NOT to blow my “Air Horn” again, OR ELSE!!!
So here it is. I finished a show downtown last night. My truck is parked about two blocks cati-corner from the club. I decide to give the K3’s and Psychos a remote blast. About one block up between my truck and I, I see a couple of cops walking across the parking lot. For story’s sake lets call them COP1 and COP2. I blast them, cops didnt move. The just stood there looking around. So I make my way to my truck, get in and start to make my way back to the club to load up my equipment. I get to the first light. It turned green, I blew my K3’s. I go up two blocks and start back in the other direction. I get flagged down by COP3. He says " Hold up, was that you with the air horn?" No sir. I reply. “Ok, you have your ID?” Yes sir. I give it to him. And then I proceed to show him that my stock horn is just a stock horn. “He says well the other officers said to stop this vehicle because you had an air horn, but you dont so go ahead.” Gives me back my id and lets me go. So Im like, HA! I fooled him. Pull up a little further only to get stopped by COPS 1&2. He says " Sir, is this your truck" Yes sir. “Open up your hood.” He looks all around my hood, doesnt see the k3’s sitting there until he was about to close it and then BUSTED. BUSTED BUSTED BUSTED in a lie as well as a violation. Now there are 6-7 cops having a meeting in front of my truck. So COP1 who is a sergeant, says the METRO police have been looking for you for 6 months for blowing this horn on Fridays and Saturdays. (Yeah right, Im thinking) So long story short, they took my information down and now Im on the hit list. “If I hear that horn down here one more time, Im going to turn you in to METRO and they will issue a warrant for your arrest” So luckily I got off with a warning. I guess I’ll wait a few months before I crank up again. COP4 comes over and says "How much you pay for something like that? " and I told him. He said, "man, I need one on my truck. " then he told me that I shouldnt have opened the hood. He said it was an illegal search of my vehicle. I guess I watch too much tv.
Check your vehicle laws (DMV code) for excessively loud horns which is all they can ticket you for, and the worst they can hit you with is a fine for noise pollution and a traffic court order to remove them.
Yeah. I agree with all of that. But It depends on the cop. They can give you disorderly conduct just depending on the situation. I got that for loud music once. Unless thats what they call a “noise violation” these days. These guys were so amazed at the “machinery” under there . I overheard them talking, “yeah, he’s got two compressors and blah blah blah.” I’ll wait a few months and then crank back up.
Fourth Amendment Law: "The flip side is that the Fourth Amendment does permit searches and seizures that are considered reasonable. In practice, this means that the police may override your privacy concerns and conduct a search of your home, barn, car, boat, office, personal or business documents, bank account records, trash barrel, or whatever, if:
the police have probable cause to believe they can find evidence that you committed a crime, and a judge issues a search warrant, or the particular circumstances justify the search without a warrant first being issued. "
I think they can come up with something that would justify the BOLD part.
“On the other hand, when the police look for and find a weapon on the front seat of a car, it is not considered a search under the Fourth Amendment because it is very unlikely that the person would think that the front seat of the car is a private place (an expectation of privacy is unlikely), and even if the person did, society is not willing to extend the protections of privacy to that particular location (no objective expectation of privacy).”
I believe crime = felony (and maybe misdemeanor). Excessively loud horn should be a traffic violation, which is a separate classification than felony/misdemeanor. I don’t think that gives them grounds for a probably cause search.
That’s an interesting take.
That means they could never search for your horns unless they intend to charge you with assault or something - which could happen - but that’s interesting.
f that they cant search unless they have probable cause. thinking you have a train horn isnt probable cause. unless u drunk and they smell or see beer bottles opened in your bed or smell weed or see a pipe in youre window, they dont have nothing you could sue and make some money and buy some bigger horns lol
the only problem with some cops is if you piss them off enough they think they are above the law. i mean wtf its just a horn pigglet lay off. just lock your doors and roll you window down. just watch out for there power trips. good luck
Yeah. It was a tricky situation. I didnt actually get pulled over. I blew my horns and then I stopped to ask the police to let me pass down a road that they closed so I could load some sound equipment in my truck. So they were pissed but it wasnt like a traffic stop to me because I was loading my truck and the guy never asked me to get down or come over there or anything. I didnt know HOW mad he was until he got through looking.