Prince George’s County, MD — An infuriating video was uploaded to Facebook this week showing police officers laying waste to the rights of an innocent man. When the innocent man, Troy Ray, confronted these officers, they proceeded to tell him they had the right to search his car with no warrant and no probable cause.

As the video begins, Ray is walking up on the scene with several police officers parked in the road. Ray finds that his door to his car is wide open and police have been rummaging through his things.

“Why did y’all go in my car officer?” asks Ray.

“To check and see if there was any contraband in there,” replied the officer as if what he had just done was okay.

“Who authorized you?” Ray asks. “Who authorized you to go in my car? I wasn’t even here to authorize you to go in my car.”

“Your car is on public property,” states the officer again, trying to assert that this somehow gives him the right to violate a person’s 4th Amendment right.

“But you didn’t ask me to go in my car,” Ray says.

“I don’t have to,” says the officer, and he is right. Certain legal factors allow police to search a person’s vehicle without permission and without a warrant. Although none of these factors were present for these officers to begin searching Ray’s vehicle, this will likely not stop them from claiming as much.

For an officer to enter a person’s vehicle without a warrant is a clear violation of the citizen’s Fourth Amendment rights to be free from unlawful and unreasonable searches and seizures by so-called authorities—in most cases. However, because of the mobile nature of vehicles, there is an “automobile exception” to the search warrant requirement. Essentially, US citizens have less of an expectation of privacy while driving a motor vehicle as it is in public.

Under the following circumstances, police can and most likely will search your car:

• You have given the officer consent.
• The officer has probable cause to believe there is evidence of a crime in your vehicle.
• The officer reasonably believes a search is necessary to their own protection (a hidden weapon, for example).
• The officer has a valid search warrant.
• You have been arrested and the search is related to that arrest (such as a search for illegal drugs).

As is clearly illustrated in the video below, Ray never gave police consent to search his vehicle, so, the first circumstance is not applicable.

The last two are also not applicable because police had no warrant and Ray was not under arrest.

What is most likely going to happen in this case is that the officers involved in these searches are going to claim they had probable cause to believe there was evidence of a crime in Ray’s vehicle. Or, they will claim that the officer “reasonably believes a search is necessary to their own protection (a hidden weapon, for example).”

Indeed, as the video progresses the officer attempts to tell Ray that he had every right to search his vehicle for this very reason.

“You left your windows down on public property,” states the officer. “I had to check to see if there was any contraband in your vehicle that the general public could get to.”

Here is where the officer messed up. Had he said he reasonably believed he saw contraband inside Ray’s vehicle, he would’ve possibly been able to justify this abuse. However, he stated that he “had to check” if there was contraband.

Even in automobiles, the 4th Amendment guarantees the right to be free from cops “checking” you without probable cause. Had they simply looked in the windows and seen what anyone else could see from the road, they would’ve been well within the law.

However, according to Ray, these officers didn’t just stop at looking in windows, they opened his doors and looked all through his car—a violation indeed.

As Ray is perplexed by the idea that cops can search his vehicle with no warrant, he asks another cop who tells him to “shut the fuck up and listen,” just before he threatens to arrest him for asking questions.

He then goes to another cop who demands he stop filming. Apparently, Ray had found a group of police in Prince George who completely forgot the oaths they swore to uphold the constitution.

The Free Thought Project contacted Troy Ray and the Prince Georges police department to ask them about this incident, however, we have yet to hear back.

If you’d like to voice your concern over the Prince George’s police department searching the vehicles of innocent citizens without probable cause, you can do so at their Facebook page, here.