Today, Saturday, July 4th, early in the morning (about 6:15 am) riding the ST turning from McCarver Street onto Ruston Way North bound I was met by Tacoma Police that stood in street and indicated I should stop. I stopped. The officer was checking if I had fireworks and if the bike had approved exhaust system. Two other officers inspected the bike while I remained stopped in roadway. No problems found so I was allowed to proceed on my ride North on Ruston Way in Tacoma. This is the same road that should be blocked later in morning for Fourth Tacoma Ruston Way Festival. Interesting ... Because I have never seen a Tacoma Police vehicle check point before. Have a safe ride today.
Opps here's the link. http://www.ghsa.org/html/stateinfo/laws/checkpoint_laws.html No edit for some reason.
Sounds like the cops were phishing and had no reasonable cause to actually stop you. Like @FlyingFinn said, never consent to any searches, ever.
Phew, I was worried some new law had passed while I wasn't paying attention. Sobriety checkpoints don't fly here in the PNW thankfully. However, this was a fireworks checkpoint so that's weird to me. Oregon doesn't do that crap, but I don't know about WA laws so much.
Answer. Don't know. I was first in line. Stopped. Then moved on. Did not stick around to listen to the conversation with the vehicle they had stopped behind me.
Were they even stopping cars? If not then they were targeting motorcycles, which should be verboten under the anti-profiling legislation. If they were conducting a blanket stop and search of all vehicles I believe that is prohibited too, but I am not a lawyer. @caslaw, do you want to weigh in here? No matter what the circumstances, If I were you I would file a complaint with the Tacoma Police and the Mayor's office. Being stopped and requested to prove your innocence before being allowed to proceed on a public thoroughfare is an unacceptable practice.
They cannot stop you without reasonable cause. Stopping you just for the sake of inspection is illegal as all hell. File a complaint ASAP!
