Iowa DOT Enforcement Officer Commits Harassment of Iowa Couple
March 29, 2009 138 Comments
We were coming home in our RV from a two week trip to the Southwest. Around 8 pm just as we turned onto Hwy 61 in our hometown, an IDOT patrolman pulled us over. My husband could not figure out why as he had obeyed all traffic signs and our license plate was up to date.
The officer did not ask for license or registration or insurance, instead he said he just wanted to know what the odd looking trailer we were pulling was used for. My husband replied that it was for a gyrocopter and he and the officer chatted for a couple of minutes during which it was explained that we lived north of town and were returning home after a trip.
All of a sudden the officer started asking what it was he was smelling and my husband said he didn’t know. The officer kept repeating, “What is that smell?” “What is that I smell?” over and over, and again and again my husband kept saying he didn’t know, because neither of us had a clue what the officer was talking about. Finally the officer said he smelled marijuana. We tried to protest and defend ourselves but the officer kept insisting this was what he smelled and we got a very bad feeling that we should not argue with him. He seemed very wired and was definitely aggressive and even menacing. In addition, the officer was acting alone and it felt strange because we had no witness to what was occurring.
Finally he asked if we would let him search the RV. Naturally we were not happy about this but gave in thinking that if we stood in the way he could become increasingly angered and try to impound our vehicle in order to get a search warrant. In addition, we had nothing to hide and were engaged in no illegal activity.
So the officer called for backup (his buddy who showed up to help was far more reasonable and professional) and we had to stand in the headlights in front of the RV while the first officer searched it. He was in there less than ten minutes and clearly did no more than a cursory search. Certainly if we had had anything illegal hidden in there he would never have found it.
When he came out with no evidence against us he proceeded to lecture my husband on Concealed Carry laws in Iowa. The only trouble was this officer was unclear on the laws– yet he had the temerity to become vaguely threatening about what he could have done to my husband if he wanted to. When we got home my husband called a sheriff’s deputy who assured him the IDOT officer was incorrect on the laws.
Anyway, the whole episode was bizarre. And if you could see us in our Class C RV–a retired couple one of whom has a beer occasionally and the other who is practically a card carrying member of AA– you would see how ludicrous this was. My husband was pretty upset not only at the invasion of privacy but also at having this happen in a town where his family has lived for four generations and where for more than forty years he himself had a respectable and lucrative business (from which the town and state benefited for years in the form of tax revenue!)
The officer did not apologize for accusing us of something we weren’t doing, nor even for taking up forty five minutes of our time. He said something to the effect that he’d thought we were carnival people (so carnival people are to be discriminated against?) and the other officer explained that IDOT has the right to pull over and question anybody they have reason to believe may be using their vehicle for commercial purposes (even if they do not have a commercial license plate and are not in violation of any traffic or registration laws.)
After a bit more discussion during which both officers continued to reveal their ignorance of gun laws, we continued on our way, never having had so much as an ID check. The feeling we got was that we were supposed to be grateful we were allowed to go home.
Here are the conclusions we came to after this occurrence:
- A driver ought to have the expectation that when travelling in a recreational NON commercial vehicle s/he will not be pulled over unless s/he has committed a moving violation or is operating with faulty equipment or expired tags.
- A driver ought to have the expectation that s/he will not be pulled over by the DOT on the basis of belonging to a certain group, type, color, or occupation.
- A driver ought to have the expectation that when pulled over by a DOT officer, s/he is asked for a driver’s license, vehicle registration, and proof of insurance, all of which provide legitimacy for the driver.
- A driver ought to have the expectation that the DOT officer will be respectful and professional and will not harrass the driver with one question repeated over and over in an attempt to break the driver down to an admission of guilt.
- A driver ought to have the expectation that possession of a firearm with a Concealed Carry permit should not raise red flags or be cause for alarm on the part of the DOT. In fact, since a criminal background check is necessary in order to obtain a Concealed Carry permit, the permit should help establish credibility for– rather than suspicion of –the permit holder.
- A driver ought to have the expectation that the DOT officer is accurately apprised of all firearm laws, including Concealed Carry and laws concerning interstate transportation of firearms.
- A driver ought to have the expectation that the DOT officer will not lecture the driver with misinformation about these laws and make veiled threats about the driver’s non-adherence to these nonexistent laws.
- Lastly, if a DOT officer has made a mistake in pulling over, interrogating, and searching a driver’s RV, the officer should offer at the very least a thank you for the driver’s time. In addition, an apology is in order. Possibly also due is some form of reparation for treating a valuable citizen like a common criminal, and we are looking into that angle.
The irony in all this is that we had just travelled 3600 miles all over the Southwest and close to the border where we encountered many DOT, county law enforcement, state highway patrol and Border Patrol, and all of them treated us professionally and intelligently.
We had to come home to Iowa to be treated like dirt. That says it all to me.
