Carson Dale C. - Arrest-proof yourself: an ex-cop reveals - how easy it is for anyone to get arrested - how to just say no to car searches - how to legally defend yourself with firearms - how to keep lawmen out of

An Ex-Cop Reveals
How Easy It Is for Anyone to Get Arrested
How Even a Single Arrest Could Ruin Your Life
What to Do If the Police Get in Your Face

Dale C. Carson and Wes Denham

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Carson, Dale C.

Arrest-proof yourself : an ex-cop reveals how easy it is for anyone to get arrested, how even a single arrest could ruin your life, and what to do if the police get in your face / Dale C. Carson and Wes Denham.

p. cm.

ISBN-13: 978-1-55652-637-4

ISBN-10: 1-55652-637-7

1. Arrest. 2. Detention of persons. I. Denham, Wes. II. Title.

HV8080.A6C38 2006

363.232dc22

2006017597

All photographs courtesy of Dale Carson or
Wes Denham unless otherwise noted.

Cover design: Emily Brackett, Visible Logic
Front cover image: Howard Berman/The Image Bank/Getty Images
Interior design: Sarah Olson

2007 by Dale C. Carson and Sam Wesley Denham III
All rights reserved
Published by Chicago Review Press, Incorporated
814 North Franklin Street
Chicago, Illinois 60610
ISBN-13: 978-1-55652-637-4
ISBN-10: 1-55652-637-7
Printed in the United States of America
5 4 3 2 1

To the thousands of young men in jail for petty offenses.
Its not right.
Its not just.
America can do better.

DISCLAIMER: Laws vary from state to state. Find a competent attorney in your state and rely on his or her advice first.

PART I
CRIMINAL JUSTICE PLAYERS:
COPS, BAD GUYS, THE CLUELESS HORDE

PART II
ARREST PROOFING ON THE STREETS

PART III
ARREST PROOFING IN YOUR CAR

PART IV
AIDS TO LEARNING

Y ouve heard about how-to books? This is a how-not-to bookhow not to get arrested and tossed into jail for petty and avoidable offenses of the sort that fill every jail in the United States. The title, Arrest-Proof Yourself, is hype, since no one, not even the president, is arrest proof. What this book does is make you arrest resistant.

This book is for people who are not career criminals. Its not about how to beat the system, but about how to avoid letting the system roll over you and ruin your life in ways that may not become apparent until years after an arrest. For career criminals, arrest is inevitable. For people with lapses in judgment, bad manners, a taste for marijuana, and no knowledge of how the criminal justice system operates, arrest is not inevitable, its optional. Thats rightoptional.

Far too many black Americans, Hispanics, and poor whites think that arrest and prison are just going to happenthat resistance, as they say, is futile. They think the system is rigged against them. Get over this attitude. By understanding cops and the criminal justice system, you can make choices and adapt your behaviorespecially in the presence of policeto minimize your chances of getting arrested. Even if youre not the most upstanding citizen, you can take charge and stay out of the system long enough to give yourself a second chance.

Clear your brain of thoughts about victimhood, racism, social ills, poverty, etc. Those things are not going away. This book is not about saving society; its about saving you when youre standing in front of a police officer who is wearing a blue uniform and a gun. Its about your choiceshow you can act, speak, and behave in order not to get arrested. The police officer can choose to arrest you or not arrest you. You can choose to act in ways that will encourage the police to let you go or, better yet, to not stop and question you at all.

This book uses the word you to mean the person most likely to get arrested. If youre a parent, you generally means your kids.

Who, me? you say.

Yes, you! Changes in law enforcement technique and doctrine that have occurred over the last few years mean that police are making more arrests than ever. You are more likely to get busted today than in the past.

But Im a good guy, you protest. If youre a parent, you may say, I have nice kids. Why should I worry about them getting arrested?

No matter how upstanding you are, you are likely to have encounters with police that can result in arrest. Heres why:

Improved technology and training enable police to arrest people for petty crimes that in the past were ignored due to lack of manpower and resources.

A law enforcement doctrine called proactive policing has spread across the land. It calls for zero tolerance of petty offenses, including such things as jaywalking, loitering, and drinking a beer on the street. Proactive policing has reduced crimeno questionbut to do so it requires huge numbers of arrests of petty offenders who in years past would never have seen the inside of a jail.

The volume of arrests has caused a boom in jail and court construction and the creation of a criminal justice system that employs hundreds of thousands and requires ever more arrests to justify its existence.

The near universal installation of computers in police cruisers, and their ability to access law enforcement databases instantly, allows police to make more arrests for what I call administrative crimes. These are failure to maintain tags, licenses, and car insurance; outstanding arrest warrants; driving with suspended licenses; failure to appear at court hearings; and violation of probation and parole. None of these crimes involves theft, violence, or injury. They are not offenses against people but against the state. In the past, paper records made arrests for these crimes difficult, especially when the offender moved to another state. With the advent of computers, the jails are stuffed with people guilty of not paying fees, not doing paperwork, not showing up in court, and in general thumbing their noses at the system.

People are shocked to discover that they can be arrested for things they didnt even know were illegal. For example, millions of parents chauffeuring the kids in the van or SUV dont realize that the stimulants and antidepressants prescribed for hyperactive children are scheduled narcotics. Kids carry these pills around in their pockets and book bags. The pills scatter inside the vehicle and can get Mom busted if she cannot produce a written prescription during a routine traffic stop.

Dope, my friends, lets talk about dope. The magic herb is everywhere, as are the powders and crystals that bliss out millions every day. America may be becoming more tolerant of drugs, but cops, courts, and legislatures are not. Almost any quantity of a controlled substance can get you arrested in most states. Most people have no idea how serious drug possession is.

People have worse manners than in the past. Whether this is due to less effective parenting, a decline in church attendance, increased use of drugs, disorder at public schools, or the pervasive influence of TV shows where everyone is in your face is a topic best left to the talk shows. All I know for a fact is that people dont know how to behave. They act out in front of cops and get busted for being obnoxious.