[gw]

Cops will often pursue petty things in hopes of discovering something more serious to charge you with. By impounding your car, they are clear to search it without your consent.

This happened to me a few years ago in Maryland. As a new resident, I didn't realize I needed to fill out a form called FR-19. My registration was flagged, and an Anne Arundel cop pulled me over one evening.

As luck would have it, my insurance paperwork was a few months out of date. Strike two. I was given several charges adding up to a year in jail, my car was towed, and I walked home.

After buying new license plates to replace the ones he took, I picked my car up from the lot ($250+). Everything inside was strewn haphazardly; even the ash trays were turned up. You know what they were looking for.

The good news? A few months later, the court dropped all charges when they realized I had insurance the whole time. No harm done!

[aswanson]

Right. The whole registration revocation was in their system with the car I was driving was because of an insurance lapse on the owner's part that was already taken care of, but either hadn't registered in their bullshit system yet or had and he just saw fit to fuck with me. Either way, too much power is entrusted to these people; from the federal to municipal, gov't is rife with grade A stupidity and abusiveness.