Do You Know Your Rights?
June 16, 2006 -- -- When ABC News Correspondent Jim Avila asked former NYPD homicide detective Dan Austin if there are things that cops don't want you to know, his response was "absolutely." When asked why, Austin says, letting these things out of the bag "just makes an extremely difficult job, that much harder."
20/20 asked Austin, who spent twenty years on the force, to show us some of the legal, but sneaky tactics police use, including such topics as consent searches; whether you have to walk the line or take a breathalyzer test (and what will likely happen if you don't); and whether police can search your home if they have been called because of noise complaints, without a warrant.
"Most people are understandably intimidated in a situation where they've been pulled over by a police officer. It's a very scary experience, especially if you've had no prior involvement with the law," said Melinda Sarafa, a former public defender and now a veteran criminal defense attorney. "So your inclination, just naturally, is to do what they ask you to do. And the police officers know that."
Sarafa says if you know your rights, you don't have to comply with things like consent searches and that "the key thing for the driver of the vehicle is to be absolutely clear that he or she is not consenting to that search."
And what about your home? Suppose there was a loud party hosted by you or your teenager and police get a noise complaint and show up at your door. Are they allowed to waltz right in without a warrant? Not unless they observe criminal activity; and even then, only if they see someone is in danger or if they believe evidence of a crime is about to be destroyed.
Regretting Letting Them In
What happened when police responded to a call about a New Year's Eve party at the Scarsdale, N.Y., home of dentist Paul Taxin and his wife Christine raises the issue of how far police can go when they want to search your home.
"When I answered the door, there were three policemen there," Paul Taxin said. "One of them who seemed to be in charge asked me 'Is it ok if I could come inside and talk to you?' So I let him inside." Taxin says he had allowed his 18 year-old daughter to have a small alcohol-free party in their basement and didn't know dozens of others had crashed the party through a back door, some bringing alcohol.
"While I'm talking to one officer, the other two officers just took off and went right down the stairs to the basement of my house without permission," Taxin said.
When police searched the basement, they found a number of the teens drinking. "None of the kids were charged; but Paul and I were taken out of our house, arrested, brought to a police station, handcuffed," Christine Taxin said. "He was put in a cell. It was really mortifying. I just couldn't stop crying."
Later, when the case went to court, the Taxins' lawyer argued police had no right to go beyond their foyer and that it was an illegal search. But a town judge accepted the police claim that they had been given permission to search. The Taxins say they've spent at least $100,000 in legal costs - and are still fighting the charge that they gave or sold alcohol to a minor.
"If I had known then what I know now I would have told the police that they can not enter, that they cannot talk to me and I would have closed the door on them," Paul Taxin said. "It's been a hard lesson."
Defense Attorney Melinda Sarafa says, "It's always very tempting to try to talk your way out of a situation or to proclaim your innocence and explain yourself to a person in authority, but what people don't realize is that often times even the truth or information they think is perfectly harmless could under different circumstances be used against them."