Your Rights with Police

What police may ask, demand, search, and record, and what you can refuse, from street stops to deadly force.

2:39

Brief

When must you answer a police officer's question?

Consensual encounters, Terry stops, ID requests, and searches: what you must do and what you can refuse.

4:06

Brief

What is stop-and-frisk?

How Terry v. Ohio's reasonable-suspicion rules permit stops and frisks, and why NYC's program was struck down.

2:35

Brief

Can the police use race when deciding who to stop?

Why a pretextual traffic stop is valid under the Fourth Amendment whenever the officer has probable cause.

3:49

Brief

Is There a Right to Record the Police?

Most federal appeals courts now protect filming police in public, but buffer laws and immunity still matter.

6:50

Brief

Can you record the police?

The First Amendment right to film police, and when officers can limit it at crime scenes, stops, and arrests.

3:54

Brief

Can the Police Lie to You?

When police may lie in questioning, how courts judge voluntariness, and why false confessions happen.

0:52

Brief

Can you be arrested for giving the finger to police?

Why the First Amendment protects rude gestures and harsh words aimed at police officers

5:08

Brief

When can police use deadly force?

The Fourth Amendment limits on police deadly force under Tennessee v. Garner, and why many states go further.

7:37

Brief

Do you have to comply with police orders?

Unlawful orders, the right to resist, and why 'comply now, complain later' often leaves no way to complain.

8:22

Brief

Police Command v. Police Request

How to tell a police command from a request, why the line blurs, and what happens when you ask which it is.

4:54

Brief

Can the Police Require a Brain Scan?

Cognitive liberty, the Fourth and Fifth Amendments, and why today's fMRI needs a cooperative subject.