Quite often most people don’t really think about what their legal rights are when they are stopped by the Police as a driver of a vehicle. If it appears to be a routine stop the driver will usually just comply with what the Police are asking for.
What has to be understood here is that the Police have the right to stop a vehicle for almost any reason. Therefore your rights as a driver being stopped are very limited. However, if there is something discovered by the Police that indicate you have broken some law, then you may have rights as they pertain to the way you are handled concerning this in regards to the way the Police enforce their obligations.
You cannot refuse to provide the documentation that the Police will probably ask you for as the driver. This will be your MOT certificate along with your driver’s licence and your proof of insurance.
Some of the complaints that are voiced about the Police powers for stopping a vehicle are too broad. These people feel that there should be reasonable grounds that must be clearly implicated in order for a Police officer to execute this power. It can be considered as a mute argument because in the majority of the cases the Police are stopping the vehicle for some specific purpose even if this is no more than a routine check. Police rely on the common law to enforce their powers for stopping a vehicle.
Once you have been stopped by the Police you do not have any rights that would hinder the Police from acting on their suspicions. Some believe that the Police have no rights to search the vehicle and that they need to have a search warrant in order to do this. This is not the case if the police have any suspicions that they need to do this. This is what probable cause is, however, there has to be some fact that they are basing their suspicions on or some form of evidence. For example, they may smell alcohol or drugs in the vehicle and they want to search the vehicle to see if there are any of these substances in the vehicle.
With there being so many legal rights when it comes to the law and the Police it is important that if one feels that they have been denied their legal rights that they seek out the advice of a lawyer.