California Police Randomly Running Your Plates

I was being followed by the police. They eventually pulled me over because they said they ran the registration on the vehicle I was driving and it wasn't current (they ran the information before they pulled me over). However, the car I was driving had someone else's tabs on the plates, the tabs were current they just wern't issued for that vehicle. They siezed the vehicle I was driving (a 30 day hold has been placed on the vehicle) and cited me for the vehicle being unregistered but didn't cite me for the fraudelant tabs or anything else.

Is this an illegal search and siezure?

Don't they have to have a valid reason (like speeding) to pull someone over.

Can the police just randomly check to see if your registration is current without having pulled you over for anything?

[racer72]

There are a number of reason the police would run a license check on you. A similar car could have been on the stolen car report, used in a robbery, the driver resembled someone with a warrant, the plates numbers were similar to stolen plates, etc. You gambled and lost and now its time to pay.

Maybe you should think about some other subject to study besides law. I'm assuming that you are a professional person. It never ceases to amaze me how quick you “professionals” are to judge without having adequately read the questions. The questions are suppose to be brief so I didn't go into every detail. None of your responses apply to my situation. In fact, I had just bought the car not knowing fake tabs came with it. I asked a few straight forward questions and you gave me some generalized answer that did not apply to my situation. It would be kind of you if you could take the time and answer my questions without any bias or judgemental remarks. Since you responsed to my question I'm sure no one else will and the answers to these questions are very important to me.

[racer72]

I answered the questions based on the info you gave. No, I am far from a professional type person, I work 8 hours a day and go to school at night. I hope to enter law school this fall. If you want a complete answer, you must give a complete account of what happened. To answer your questions, no, it is not illegal search and seizure, the police appeared to have a valid reason to pull you over, and yes, they can run your plates without any reason. Why didn't you mention you had just bought the car in your first post, that makes a huge difference in your options. You should sue the seller of the vehicle for all costs associated with this matter. If he had sold you a vehicle with legal tabs, you would not have been pulled over.

I am a law school graduate. What I offer is mere information, not to be construed as forming an attorney client relationship.

I will attempt to answer you: as someone who worked with the police department quite closely:

police are allowed to run plates because:
1. you have no right to privacy to your car plates on the outside of your vehicle while driving on the public road or street or highway.

2. IT is part of the state's rights to protect all state citizens concerning health, safety welfare, morals. check your constitution.

3. How then do you reconcile the issue concerning YOU didn't know these were other people's tags? That is why police didn't charge you with fraud -- because you could have purchased it used. So they gave you a ticket for THIS car not being registered. You might be able to get the ticket waived in court if you can show there was no way for you to know that it was not the same tag.

try [url]http://www.attorneypages.com[/url] if you have any more questions. Lots of them give free consultations.