A Review of "Never Get Busted Video"

Colleagues,

These are my preliminary notes after watching "Never Get Busted". I 
have some more elaborating to do on a number of topics discussed in this DVD 
but would like feedback  on this before it gets too long to hold people's 
interest.Loretta

1. How a narcotic detector dog works. You want a dog with high prey 
drive. Scent a ball with the smell of pot and he thinks anything that smells 
like weed is concealing his ball. Dogs can separate odors. Masking 
substances do not work. Coffee grounds do not mask odor. Nor does mustard, fabric 
softener, petroleum products, pepper, vanilla. Claims dogs cannot smell 
through anything and that instead odors permeate out. The rate at which 
odors permeate is different for every container that marijuana can be 
placed in. But Mr. Cooper does not know how long permeation takes with 
each item. Says if you are traveling with a few joints to place them in a 
non-contaminated container....meaning that there are no traces of 
marijuana on the outside of the container just before leaving. Even though he 
just stated that he does not know how long it takes odors to permeate and 
form a scent cone on the outside of the container he claims that one will not form 
in time for a dog to smell it. How can he know that if he doesn't know 
how long it takes?

Next he tells us that microscopic dust is transferred to our fingers 
every time we handle marijuana and if we haven't cleaned our hands this dust 
will be transferred to the door handle of the car causing a dog to alert. So 
keep your hands clean.

Hiding marijuana in food:

Claims hiding marijuana in food like hamburger patties is a good idea 
because the dog, while able to smell individual odors, it cannot 
communicate to the handler that it smells marijuana in the hamburger 
patties. The dog will react but the handler will think the dog is 
reacting to the meat.

Distractions:

Dogs that have high prey drive, such as the ones that are trained to 
sniff drugs, cannot focus on finding 'the ball' (read your stash) when there 
is some other type of prey in the area....like a cat in the car. Mr. 
Cooper claims that even if the cat is removed the dog still will not focus on 
anything but finding the cat.Says it was impossible to get his canine to search for marijuana if 
they were pulled over near a road kill.
Claims deer scent and fox urine that hunters use should be used to spray 
your tires and that it is a good idea to have a cat in your car if you 
are going to be carrying marijuana.

False Alerting:

Remember the dog thinks he/she is finding their favorite toy and will 
do anything to get it. Handlers have learned this and through voice 
commands can cause their canines to false alert. The most often used command to 
get a dog to false alert is;

"Schht get it! Get it!"

This works because the dog has been trained with that command when it 
is about to get its ball.

Concealing your stash:

Wear latex gloves when hiding your stash in your automobile.
Never hide your stash on the exterior of the vehicle.
Never keep it in plain sight. DUH!
Never hide stash in easy to find locations like the ashtray or glove 
compartment. Never conceal your stash in an overnight bag.

Hide your stash in hard to find places such as way underneath the dash 
where there are lots of crevices. He said during his time as a narc he 
would feel underneath the dash for a pound but never took the time to 
search every crevice. What he doesn't say is that not all officers 
follow the same rules that he did. Every officer has different methods of 
doing things and the one that stops you just might take the time to search 
every cranny under your dash. Mr. Cooper claims that if you spend 15 minutes 
to hide your stash that it will take an officer an hour to find it.

Claims it is a good idea to hide your stash toward the middle of the 
interior of the vehicle instead of close to the exterior. Also 
recommends concealing your stash as high up as you can get it such as in the 
headliners of vehicles. Claims it is hard for a narcotic detector dog 
to sniff 'up high.'

I can just about guarantee that's bullshit.

Claims another good place is to carry it in your hand. Claims an 
informant once told him he always carried it in his hand and never carried more 
than he could eat.

What he doesn't say is that if you are observed by an officer eating it 
you will still be charged with destruction of evidence, internal possession 
and whatever else they can make up to charge you with.

Claims he noticed a small trap door cut in the floorboard on the 
drivers side of many vehicles. This trap door was used to get rid of the stash 
and if he saw it then he just thought it was road debris.

Get to know your vehicle. Vehicles have many different compartments 
depending on what type of vehicle it is.

Be creative when hiding your stash. Hide it in places such as a straw 
and then throw the straw back in the fast food bag.

Claims he never ever arrested anyone for marijuana brownies or cookies 
and that it is prepared in food that is a safe way to transport it.

Search and Seizure:

Three things that are vital that you need to know about search and 
seizure law.

1. Reasonable Suspicion
2. Probable cause
3. Consent to search

Reasonable Suspicion
Reasonable suspicion is when an officer sees different items that when 
viewed together as a package indicates you are committing a crime.
An few examples of things that give an officer reasonable suspicion are 
a shaky hand from being nervous. He says this alone is not enough for 
search. He also says different stories from driver and passenger along with 
shaking hands will give an officer reasonable suspicion.

What if you aren't traveling with a passenger?

Mr. Cooper says an officer can have any number of reasonable suspicions 
but cannot search your car unless he has consent, a canine alerts or some 
other probable cause.

Probable Cause.

An officer only needs one probable cause to search your car without 
your permission and you have to let the officer search or you will be 
arrested for resisting a search and a seizure. Officer has to detect a crime is 
being committed in his presence through one of his senses. Sight, 
smell, canine alert give an officer probable cause and there is nothing you 
can do about it.

Things to avoid if you don't want to give an officer probable cause.

Don't have a marijuana leaf key ring. This allows the officer to 
reasonably suspect that you smoke pot. (DUH!)
Don't have beer in the console.(DUH!)
Don't have rolling papers in the glove compartment. (DUH!)
Don't have rubber bands on your gear shift. That makes an officer think 
you are smuggling money. (Ok...how many people do you know that ride around 
with rubber bands on their gearshift?)
Don't leave roaches in the ashtray. (Geez...could you please get to the 
part where you are telling me something I don't already know that will 
be useful in keeping me out of jail?)
Don't have a pipe visible. (DUH! I want my money back)
Make sure there are no seeds in the floor board.
Don't carry High Times where an officer can see it.
Don't carry scales where a cop can see them.
Don't carry plastic baggies where an officer can see them.
Don't carry two shaving cream cans.

Consent to search

Unbelievably Mr. Cooper starts this segment off by stating that all our 
lives we have been told to refuse consent. He then states that he does 
not recommend that. He claims that if you have hidden your stash in a hard 
to find location such as those supposedly covered earlier (under the dash 
is all I have seen so far and seems to me like everyone, including the 
cops, dogs and even my grandmother already knows that one) that you should 
GIVE THE OFFICER PERMISSION TO SEARCH IF HE ASKS. WTF???

He goes on to explain that 100 times out of 100 that when someone 
refused consent to search they had something in their vehicles they did not 
want found. Claims it was usually drugs but could sometimes be something 
like a dirty magazine. When you refuse consent it gives officers reasonable 
suspicion. If you consent the officer will PROBABLY make a quick search 
and let you go. Claims that if you refuse search that the officer then has 
the legal authority to do a weapons pat down of your vehicle. Officer can 
also call out a narcotics dog. If the dog fails to alert  Mr. Cooper claims 
the officer will sometimes cause the dog to false alert thereby giving the 
officer probable cause. Officer will also call out to his/her cop 
buddies "I have a refusal, I have a refusal" which brings in more officers to 
try and figure out how to get into your car.

Now wait a minute....if the officer already did a 'pat-down search' of 
your cars interior then didn't he already gain access? I say stand your 
ground and refuse the search no matter what. I find it very odd that from his 
opening statement on the DVD and throughout every segment he harps on 
the 4th Amendment and how it has been eroded and how he wants to protect it 
and restore it and then he tells you quite plainly to completely disregard 
it when you are asked to consent to a search. What gives?

See, the laws are different in every state. Like here in Alabama up 
until Oct. 1, 2006 one joint would get you a misdemeanor but if you were 
caught with a second joint at some later date that was an automatic felony 
punishable by up to 10 years in state prison. Mr. Cooper did not cover 
state-by-state laws and that places people in danger by telling them to 
consent to a search, especially if they have marijuana. When you 
consent you give up the right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure. 
When you give up that right it no longer protects you in the court of law. 
When you maintain that right you can always state in open court that you 
NEVER gave the officer consent to search. You may not win in court by saying 
that you did not consent, but if you consent then you give up all rights to 
the protections under to the 4th amendment. Why further limit your options 
for a good outcome when you suddenly find yourself sucked into the criminal 
injustice system?

Narcotics Profiling:

Narcotics profiling is defined as the methods used by law enforcement 
to increase the chances of a drug arrest based on visual cues and 
indicators prior to the traffic stop.

Things that differentiate a user from a smuggler.

Not being local.

Mr. Cooper says he knew when someone wasn't a local because of the way 
they would proceed through the intersection that he was watching. Notes an 
older white man in a Tahoe that isn't using a turn signal and says that 
doesn't interest him. Notes a black male and a black female in a Lincoln and 
says the car is interesting to him. Doesn't say why that particular car is 
interesting. Claims interest isn't racial and states that he arrested 
more white people than black during his career as a drug cop. "I am 
absolutely not racist" he says.
To me he is saying the equivalent of "I'm not racist...I have lot's of 
black friends." I also don't buy that he arrested more white people 
than black people for drugs during his career because statistical evidence 
would not back up that claim. Not unless he includes Hispanic people in the 
white category. Claims lot's of cops are racist but he isn't one of them and 
then the next word out of his mouth is 'Mexicans". Mr. Cooper would be wise 
to learn that lot's of Hispanics are AMERICANS and not MEXICANS. Being of 
Hispanic descent does not make one automatically from Mexico.

Mr. Cooper pulls up behind the Lincoln and says that he at that time he 
would run a license plate check and then states that he wouldn't on 
that car because it has a sticker that indicates it was bought locally.

He then goes into how DARE and Just Say NO to Drugs stickers would 
alert him to a vehicle as would any other stickers claiming support of law 
enforcement  such as Fraternal Order of Police.

White males with long hair.

Next Mr. Cooper hits us with an honest explanation of why cops like 
busting people. He says they will tell you when asked that it is because want 
to help people or they want to keep drugs out of the hands of kids. Mr. 
Cooper says, and I quote, "That's bullcrap. They do this because they like the 
adrenaline rush. While driving around in his SUV with the camera 
rolling and pointing out who he would stop and why he states that he is 
starting to get that old adrenaline rush. He says that the adrenaline rush he 
received from narcotics busts was addictive and lead him to do things like leave 
suspects un-cuffed in hopes that they would run or fight.
He validates drug policy reforms position that the "what about the 
children?" is a government ploy.
This part of the video has been pretty good.

Interstate Interdiction and Profiling:

Out of state tags and black occupants.

Disabled vet tags because most disabled vets were in Vietnam and 
probably smoked pot and got addicted to heroin.

Driving a Corvette and wiping your nose

Vehicles riding low in the back.

Claims you are safer transporting on a rainy day because officers don't 
like to get wet.

Fraternity and sorority stickers indicate college kids and everyone  
knows college kids smoke marijuana.

Bibles and Jesus Fish

This portion of the video confirmed what most of us already know and 
that is that EVERYONE is a suspect in the war on drugs.

Traffic Stops:

In this segment Mr. Cooper shows footage of actual stops he made that 
were captured by his dashboard police camera. He points out the things that 
suspects did that made them suspicious.

Near the end he shows a stop where he got the drivers consent to search 
and found three hundred pounds of marijuana. He then asks the driver why he 
gave consent to search and the driver responds that he would have 
searched anyway. Mr. Cooper claims that isn't true. He would have just walked 
the dog around and it would have alerted and then he would have searched. 
It all comes to the same damn thing anyway. Seems like a lot of hair 
splitting to me...not to mention that it contradicts Mr. Coopers earlier advice 
to give consent to search even if you are carrying marijuana.

At this point I have not learned a lot from this video. It has 
confirmed my belief that everyone is a suspect in the drug war and that no matter 
what you do cops will search your car when they damn well feel like it. Most of 
it is common sense stuff that every pot smoker knows such as the 
sections of not having a marijuana key chain, beer visible, plastic baggies and 
such. Making sure your tag, license and insurance are current, not 
acting nervous. Stuff we already knew. Not stuff that we always follow but 
know that we should be following nonetheless.

Mr. Cooper included some tried and true drug policy reform quotes and 
stats, a few lines about how he feels bad for all the families he 
destroyed, anecdotes about his five arrests, some truth about cops and 
their intentions and why the do what they do even when they know it 
isn't making a difference. It may impress many people to hear that coming out 
of a former cops mouth. I was far more impressed when I heard LEAP 
speakers for the first time than I am with this cop and this video.

I did not learn any way to keep a narcotics dog from detecting my bag 
nor to keep a cop from searching my car. The fact that this has been 
packaged and marketed as a way to help people stay out of jail and sold for a 
massive profit does not lend any credibility to the notion put forth by 
Mr. Cooper that he wishes to atone for his sins as a narcotics officer. If 
that notion were true then this video would have contained information that 
is actually useful when trying to avoid narcotics dog and officer 
detection and it would have been disseminated for free. However, according to 
this ideo there isn't a damn thing I can do to ensure I will "Never Get 
Busted Again".

I have one more DVD to review called "Hidden Compartments" and if this 
DVD I just watched is any indication of what the next one holds then it 
will likely show me all of the hidden compartments that cops can find and 
tell me not to use them, but offer no way for me to use a hidden compartment 
without police detection.

I say it's false advertising and I want my money back.

========================

BONUS COVERAGE (and you don't even have to give up your credit card 
number, street address or grandmother's maiden name)

My initial feedback after reading Loretta's review (seriously LN, 
thanks for taking the time to review this tape so that others are saved both 
money and time)

====
FIRST off

 From now on, I'm stuffing all my pot inside of Big Macs and carrying 
my cat in her carrier.

Yeah sure...

STEVE'S 60 second DVD on HOW TO NOT GET BUSTED IN YOUR CAR

1) Keep your car properly tagged and lights working etc

2) Drive to your supplier and pick up your product

3) Put the product into your trunk and out of sight.

4) Drive directly home

5) Remove your product and carry it into your house.

Two cents plus a nickel to your nearest DPR org...Cash only.

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Other thoughts

And forgive me, I'm feeling smarmy, but not at you personally Loretta, 
just the whole Topic.

======

" What he doesn't say is that if you are observed by an officer eating 
it you will still be charged with destruction of evidence"

SH: What evidence?

🙂

====
"Hide it in places such as a straw and then throw the straw back in the 
fast food bag."

SH: A Straw?

Steve's five second advice on how to not get busted using coke or other 
"powder" products:

STOP USING COKE

I know from long personal experience back in the day that, sure It 
Feels 
Pretty Good, but it's really  not all that after the first few hundred 
times.

=======
Reasonable suspicion is when an officer sees different items that when 
viewed together as a package indicates you are committing a crime.

SH: Yeah...Like when the car smells like hamburgers and there's two 
cats in the back seat (to go with the DrugSense bumper sticker)?

======
"....a shaky hand from being nervous."

SH: If a cop asks me why my hands are shaking, I tell him I'm very 
nervous around cops due to all the cases in recent years of cops shooting 
unarmed civilians.

No really.

It's a great icebreaker and we all just laugh and laugh and laugh.

Right before I get my ticket.

=====
"He also says different stories from driver and passenger along with 
shaking hands will give an officer reasonable suspicion."

SH: Steve's four second advice on how to never have "different stories" 
between passengers and driver

DON"T TELL ANY STORIES.  Don't answer any questions.  Supply your 
license, 
registration and proof of insurance and then continue to ask, "Are we 
finished here, sir?" until these items are returned to 
you.  http://www.flexyourights.org

======
Stuff Steve Is Going To Do Immediately, Just Because (though not while 
making that all important 4mile round trip to my supplier and back)

1) Get a a marijuana leaf key ring.  (to go with my marijuana leaf 
necklace).  If the officer asks about it, my reply is, "Pretty cool, 
huh?  Five dollars each and the money goes to NORML. How many do you 
want?"

2) Put a couple of rubber bands on my gear shift. If asked, I'll tell 
him my therapist counsels me to pop the suckers anytime I'm driving around 
and start getting enraged about the lies of the DEA and ONDCP.

3) Toss a copy of HIgh Times on the back seat next to the LEAP 
brochures,,,,

4)......and next to the two cans of Gillette Foamy.  If queried, I will 
answer that one question with, "Doesn't everyone carry at least two ??"

========

PERSONAL SIDE NOTE...If you're riding around with "an open beer" in 
your console, I weep not for you when you get your car searched.  For crying 
out loud, wait til you pull over and drink til you drop if you're so 
inclined.

=======
STEVE submits that Cooper's segment on Search and Seizure removes any 
lingering doubt that this DVD is a 100% capitalistic scam that IMHO 
will lead more people to getting busted than before.

Hidden compartments?  That's only important for traffickers, not the 
other 99% of illicit drug users.

Loretta says, "False advertising and I want my money back".

Steve Replies with a very friendly, but rueful smile...."Caveat Emptor, 
mi Alabama Amiga!"

======
Best regards to all who've read the above. And a sincere thanks to 
Loretta for taking the time to write up this detailed review.