Hartford lawyer Jake Dressler is using air fresheners to remind his clients to know their rights during traffic stops.
He said some people get themselves arrested by not knowing their rights, and that everyone should know “the most basic things.”
Dressler, who has a solo Hartford-based practice, said he supports police doing their jobs, but wants people to see “at a glance” what they should and should not do if pulled over, including not to ever fight with police officers.
He said what the air fresheners say is not legal wizardry, but simply a few steps for people to keep them from getting into serious trouble because they do not know what to do or how to act.
For example, he said, he advises clients, “do not say more than necessary; do not consent to a search,” when stopped for traffic violations.
Dressler said he knows “people can get nervous.”
“If you give only what is necessary, all the basics. you are not going to incriminate yourself,” he said. “You do not have to go into any more than that.”
The air freshener Dressler had created says, “Know your Rights” on the front and on the back, it has four steps.
- Identify yourself and ask why you were pulled over. Do not reveal more than necessary.
- If the cops want to search, say “I do not consent to a search.”
- If arrested, say “I want to speak with my lawyer,” and nothing further.
- If arrested, do not argue or resist.
Dressler has been practicing law in Connecticut and Massachusetts for the last four years; his Connecticut office is in Hartford at 100 Pearl St.
University of New Haven Associate Professor of the Criminal Justice Department Michael Lawlor said the air fresheners look fine to him.
“I teach a class on search and seizure constitutional law to undergrads, and I emphasize these and other rights,” he said. “It’s amazing how few people think they will never be in such a situation and, as a result, don’t understand what they can say or do.”
“Also, it’s even more important in this time of seemingly race or ethnicity based stops by federal police, as recently approved by the U.S. Supreme Court, said Lawlor, who also served 24 years in the Connecticut House of Representatives and was former Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s undersecretary for criminal justice policy and planning in the Office of Policy and Management.
Dressler, who is not advocating for poor behavior, noted that “you can’t give a legal consult in an air freshener, but the biggest takeaway from [the message on it] is consent.”
“You don’t have to consent to a search,” he said.
Police do not “have to be explicit about your rights regarding consent,” he said.
If an officer “says something like, ‘Do you mind stepping out of the car?’…or may say, ‘I’m just going to look around here,’ at that point you can say, ‘I don’t consent to a search.’ A lot of people don’t know that, and people get screwed where the cops didn’t have probable cause to search and they just said they want to look around. People don’t know that they can refuse,” he said.
Dressler said if someone is pulled over for speeding, police cannot search your car without probable cause.
“But if they just say, ‘I’m going to take a look around’ and you don’t say anything and then they can find things because you have consented,” Dressler said. “Any time a cop says, I’m going to search your car. Or ‘Do you mind if I search your car?’ You just say, ‘I don’t consent to a search.’ If they know to back off, they will back off.”
Dressler said, however, there are some instances an officer can search without your consent, as he or she may have probable cause that the driver does not know about.
“But most times if it’s a run-of-the-mill speeding or a traffic violation or something like that a cop only has probable cause if a search is going to lead to instrumentalities of a crime. If you are speeding and you get pulled over, there’s nothing in your car that is hiding that caused the speeding,” Dressler said.
“When they pull you over and suspect something more than just speeding, they are trying to develop probable cause to search your car. If they start questioning you and you start sweating and looking really nervous or look like you are trying to hide something, they have probable cause,” he said.
Dressler said that, if an officer were to continue to search the car without consent, just to repeat that the consent wasn’t given and say nothing more.
But he emphasized not ever to confront or fight with police.
“You can hash that stuff out in court. You can’t resist. If the cop is breaking the law, that comes later,” he said. “A judge will see from the body cam that consent was not given and that there was no probable cause to search and you win. That’s where you win. You don’t win on the street resisting arrest.”
“You never fight,” he said.
Dressler said the response has been positive when he has distributed the air freshener, although he said he’s unsure if anyone has used them yet.
“I see a lot of people that get themselves arrested by not knowing their rights,” Dressler said.
Dressler’s specialties are criminal and personal injury, estate planning and bankruptcy.