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

289 Pages·2007·3.25 MB·English

by  Dale C. Carson

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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
363.2'32—dc22
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
eBook ISBN: 1-55652-700-4
Printed in the United States of America
5 4 3 2 1
To the thousands of young men in jail for petty offenses.
It’s not right.
It’s 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.

CONTENTS
Introduction: Talking Shop with an Old Cop ................................................1

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

1 New Plantations for New Generations ..................................................29
2 To Hunt and Arrest Is the Quest of the Best ........................................50
3 When You’re Living Free and Tall,
Don’t Become a Score in Police Pinball ..................................................61
4 Getting Wise to Real Bad Guys ...............................................................76
5 Get on Board with the Clueless Horde ...................................................83
6 Those Freaking Jits Will Give You Fits ...................................................95
7 Why Minorities Get Hammered ...........................................................109
8 Law Enforcement Shouldn’t Give a Pass
to All Those Crooks in the Middle Class .............................................122
9 Some Modest Suggestions ......................................................................132

» PART II «
ARREST PROOFING ON THE STREETS

10 Cop a ’Tude and You Get Screwed .......................................................139
11 Dirty Cop Tricks .....................................................................................142
12 Peekaboo! Peekaboo! Don’t Let Big Bad Cops See You ....................147
13 Whatcha Gonna Do When They Come for You? ...............................158
14 Blue Light? Stay Out of Sight! ...............................................................161
15 If You Lie, the Cops Will Pry ................................................................164
16 Mama Was Right: Stay Home at Night! ..............................................170
17 You Can Win by Giving In ....................................................................173
18 To Avoid the Tragic, Use Words That Are Magic ..............................177
19 Street Creds Are Tops for Dealing with Cops ....................................184
20 There Ain’t No Hope When You Carry Dope ....................................193
21 Emergency Procedures ..........................................................................197
22 When Girls Tell a Tale That Sends You to Jail ....................................202

» PART III «
ARREST PROOFING IN YOUR CAR
23 Citizen Inspection? Revenue Collection? Or Driver Protection? ....213
24 Mirror, Mirror in the Car, Will the Cops Stay Near or Far? ............223
25 Staying Free During a Traffic Stop
Means the Guy Who Loses Is the Cop ................................................235
26 To Be Searched or Not to Be Searched? That Is the Question! ........241
27 Tips That Never Fail to Keep You Out of Jail ......................................250
28 Car Creds Are the Key to Keep You Free ............................................255
29 Don’t Get in a Lurch. Do a Search! ......................................................263
30 You Can Tell Cops “Toodle-oo”
When You Squirt the Yellow Goo ........................................................270

» PART IV «
AIDS TO LEARNING
The Golden Rules ..........................................................................................277
The Magic Words ..........................................................................................277
Index ...............................................................................................................279
INTRODUCTION TALKING SHOP WITH AN OLD COP
Y
ou’ve heard about how-to books? This is a how-not-to book—how 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 Your-
self, 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. It’s 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, it’s
optional. That’s right—optional.
Far too many black Americans, Hispanics, and poor whites think that
arrest and prison are just going to happen—that 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 behavior—especially in the presence of police—to
minimize your chances of getting arrested. Even if you’re 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 sav-
ing society; it’s about saving you when you’re standing in front of a police
officer who is wearing a blue uniform and a gun. It’s about your choices—
how 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
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INTRODUCTION
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 you’re 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 I’m a good guy,” you protest. If you’re 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. Here’s 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
crime—no question—but 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 cruis-
ers, 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
2
INTRODUCTION
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 comput-
ers, 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 didn’t even know were illegal. For example, mil-
lions of parents chauffeuring the kids in the van or SUV
don’t realize that the stimulants and antidepressants pre-
scribed 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, let’s 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 pos-
session is.
» People have worse manners than in the past. Whether this
is due to less effective parenting, a decline in church atten-
dance, 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 don’t know how to behave. They act out in
front of cops and get busted for being obnoxious.
3