The answer to this question is interesting. Yes, if the police pull you over for a DUI and they decide that they're going to arrest you because they believe they have probable cause that you are driving under the influence of alcohol, drugs or both, they can impound your vehicle, and part of that impound is they are permitted to search it, obviously for safety reasons. They don't want to bring a dangerous vehicle into their impound lot.

Police Can Search Your Vehicle After a DUI Arrest

So, that answers the question after the arrest. They cannot search your vehicle as part of a DUI investigation unless they're going to arrest you or unless they see something in plain view that gives them an idea that something illegal is going on.

But what they can do is, when they pull you over for a DUI, they're able to shine their flashlight or look if it's daylight into your vehicle and if they see a half-drank bottle of alcohol, obviously they could use that observation in their police report to support the argument that you've been drinking and driving.

Any other illegal activity they see can certainly be reported and if they see something blatantly illegal in there like a gun, some sort of drugs, then they're going to be able to search the whole car, impound it and arrest you.

Police Asking For Consent To Search Vehicle

So, they are limited into what they can do, but one way they get around the limitation of not just being able to search every car they pull over is, they ask people. They say, you don't have anything illegal in here?

You don't mind if we search your car. Most of the time, people — because of the pressure of the situation and they're nervous and scared — give the police consent to search. Consent is the best for the police because then they are allowed to search all they want because the person is allowing them to do it.

If you say you don't want them to search and they don't have probable cause, then technically they can't search. Unfortunately, a lot of times they try to get around this by just searching anyway, or they bring dogs in to try and sniff out some sort of drugs.

That would give them probable cause to be able to search. But, in your standard DUI pullover, they should just be asking you for your license. They can ask the normal questions and if they smell alcohol on your breath and see that you're driving erratically and they feel like you might be under the influence, then they can ask you to take their field sobriety test, ask you to blow into the Preliminary Alcohol Screening device.

You Have The Right To Refuse Search

You can refuse both if you want, but the police are certainly entitled to ask you. Then they're going to ask you a bunch of questions trying to figure out whether you're drinking and driving.

Trying to figure out whether you have your head on straight, but if they smell alcohol on your breath, you look like you've been drinking and driving and they point-blank ask you how many drinks you've had and you tell them that you've had any alcohol, that's it.

They're going to get you out of the car and they're going to test you for driving under the influence. If they determine that you're under the influence of alcohol, then obviously they're going to arrest you, take you back to the station, do a blood test, do a breath test, depending on which one you choose, and then depending on what your result is, they will arrest you for a DUI.

The thing where they can really get into your car is if they can get that ability to arrest you, because part of that arrest is if you have a car, they're allowed to impound the car and then they're able to search it. They don't have to search it.

I've seen a lot of police officers just asking the person permission to just park their car on the side of the road, which is great because it saves the impound charges and there's no reason for the police to search it at that point. It's kind of a catch-22.

On the one hand, if you're cooperative with the police, answer all of their questions and do everything they say, and you're under the influence of alcohol, you're probably going to be arrest for a DUI.

On the other hand, if you're nasty to them and don't cooperate with them, you're probably going to be arrested for a DUI and they're going to do everything they can lawfully to cause issues for you, problems for you, keep you longer in jail.

So, if you have a situation and you feel like the police illegally searched your car, then give us a call. We'll sit down and go over the whole scenario and we'll let you know whether there was an illegal search.

But as it relates to DUI's, searches of vehicles a lot of times really don't matter. In other words, just because they illegally searched your vehicle, doesn't mean they can't get you for a DUI.

Review of Your DUI Case

Now, if they find something in the vehicle that is a lynch-pin for them to be able to arrest you and convict you for a DUI and they illegally searched your vehicle, then the argument could be made because the search was illegal, anything they found can't be used against you because it would be fruit of the poisonous tree — in other words, fruit of their illegal search — and then we could keep that evidence out.

But a lot of times in DUI cases, it's not what they're finding in the vehicle that's the problem. It's what they're finding in your system — you blood alcohol level is a .08 or greater — that's the issue. That's the problem. Now, if they illegally pull you over, that's a different story.

That you can get everything knocked out for. So, first you have to decide whether or not they illegally searched the car and then you have to decide what that means to you and your case and the only way to really do that.

Unless you've got Los Angeles DUI defense training background — is to sit down with an attorney who has done this before, who has been in and out of the local courthouses and knows how to deal with these types of motions, knows that's lawful, knows what's not lawful, knows the case law in Los Angeles and California and knows how to fight these illegal pull overs, illegal arrests and illegal searches.