"Your Car Is An Extension of Your Home": What does this mean?

[Kraven251]

I've heard if you have a lock container in the car they can not search the container itself.

This is useful if you do not consent to a search and they actually jump through the hoops for the paperwork to legally search your vehicle. You are required to open the trunk, but not required to open a locked box in the trunk unless it is in the paperwork, granted the officer could possibly still have exigent circumstances on their side to open the locked box etc. If a judge signed off on a search warrant on your vehicle, they already had some sort of probable cause other then "the guy said no."

As with the earlier examples, this is only applicable if you don't have anything visible in the car to give additional reasons to think you are up to something shady. Moral of the story, keep your car clean.

[KevDen2005]

This is useful if you do not consent to a search and they actually jump through the hoops for the paperwork to legally search your vehicle. You are required to open the trunk, but not required to open a locked box in the trunk unless it is in the paperwork, granted the officer could possibly still have exigent circumstances on their side to open the locked box etc. If a judge signed off on a search warrant on your vehicle, they already had some sort of probable cause other then "the guy said no."

As with the earlier examples, this is only applicable if you don't have anything visible in the car to give additional reasons to think you are up to something shady. Moral of the story, keep your car clean.

If there is a search warrant you don't have to be and probably won't be near your car. It will be sealed and impounded until the warrant is approved, most likely.

[Bailey Guns]

This is useful if you do not consent to a search and they actually jump through the hoops for the paperwork to legally search your vehicle. You are required to open the trunk, but not required to open a locked box in the trunk unless it is in the paperwork, granted the officer could possibly still have exigent circumstances on their side to open the locked box etc. If a judge signed off on a search warrant on your vehicle, they already had some sort of probable cause other then "the guy said no."

As with the earlier examples, this is only applicable if you don't have anything visible in the car to give additional reasons to think you are up to something shady. Moral of the story, keep your car clean.

This isn't necessarily true. It depends on how the warrant is written and what items of contraband are named in the warrant.

[Ronin13]

This isn't necessarily true. It depends on how the warrant is written and what items of contraband are named in the warrant.

I loved hearing my buddies son- who's now a defense attorney (but former LEO) in AL- say "It would be very illegal to search through your underwear drawer when the warrant was obtained because of suspicion that you stole a television."