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I just received a call from a St. Louis County Police Internal Affairs Sergeant. Apparently Sgt. Stuckmeyer filed a complaint against Officer Lane saying the way he treated me might have been inappropriate/ illegal/ against department policy.

I answered The IA Sergeant’s questions and sent him the recording I had of the beginning of the encounter until Lane stole my phone. He seemed like a reasonable person and appreciated my input.

This is a joke right? You really think that was why the cop stole my cell phone? I might try to hit a cop with it while about 15-18 police officers stand within 50 feet? I’m sure he would have willing taken a Samsung cell phone in the face for the opportunity to beat the crap out of me.

I actually have a pretty nice video/audio setup in my car. The thing is, I was not driving it that night. That is why I tried using my cell phone to call an off-site recorder as a last ditch effort for protection. Of course, I didn’t count on having the police officer steal my phone. Yes, that is what he did...
716.140 Larceny—Prohibited.— No person shall steal, take or carry away any article of value which is the property of another person or entity.

Yes, that is true. I was ordered out. The officer told me to put the car in park and I told him it was a manual. He didn’t understand so I repeated it. Then he ordered me out. I rolled up my windows and locked the car. The interesting thing is, the pocket I put the keys in, is the pocket I had my Ruger LCR. The keys were sitting right on top of it and they didn’t feel it when they grabbed them- Thankfully.

I’ve been stopped by another department’s checkpoint and they have the cars pull off to the side, out of the main travel lane. This eliminates the need to enter a locked vehicle. I’d venture to say the way the STL County Police do it though is by design.

Hey all. It’s been a while since I posted (probably since my last run in with the police), but I frequently lurk around here.

First of all, to address Missouri statute 542.402:
“2. It is not unlawful under the provisions of sections 542.400 to 542.422:

(2) For a person acting under law to intercept a wire or oral communication, where such person is a party to the communication or where one of the parties to the communication has given prior consent to such interception;”

Missouri is a one-party recording state. As long as I’m part of the conversation I can record it. Also, there has to be an expectation of privacy. So, say I was to accidentally record two police officers having a conversation at the roadblock, it’s not illegal. They have to have an expectation of privacy, which they do not have on a public road. You can be sure that I know this law very well, as well as every other criminal law in the state.

Also, HB mean absolutely nothing. Even if it was a law, yes, according to MO case law, I was operating a motor vehicle, but I was not operating the phone. It was in my lap (with no lights on in at all).

As for the other negative things posted about me:
I was simply on my way to taking my girlfriend home from a concert after a great night. I was fine until I got stopped when I had done NOTHING WRONG/ILLEGAL. On top of that, I was mad to see about 10 vehicles in front of me get waived right through along with me until the officer was right next to me at which point he quickly made me stop. I don’t know if it was because he knew who I was right then or because I was a younger looking person, but either way, it’s not what I wanted to deal with.

I originally told the officer why I was in a bad mood, but I wanted to end the conversation there. Case law has allowed an officer to have reasonable suspicion while questioning a person who answers some questions, but then stops. They cannot however, get that same suspicion from someone who doesn’t get into any line of questioning. I know what kind of questions come next. “Where are you coming from?” “Where are you going?” “Do you have any weapons in the car?” All questions I don’t want to answer. Why on earth would I want to chit chat with someone who is only talking to me in order to find a reason to give me a ticket or lock me up? He is not trying to meet a new friend, he is trying to take away my freedom and his pay/promotion/accolades depend on it. No thanks! I was also not to happy with having 15,000 candlepower stuck in my eyes when I was just minding my own business. If someone else out in public walked up to you and for no reason did that, I’d venture to say most of you would jack that person in their face.

Funny thing is, on the way home from the concert I saw two vehicles without their headlights/taillights on and one with just their parking lights on. They were probably drunk, but all the cops were sitting on one exit ramp guessing which cars to pull over. There are enough laws to stop just about any car for an actual violation (no matter how dumb the law). There is no need to stop random people who have not committed any violation.

Also, they for sure knew who I was. They even told me, “We know who you are. We all know who you are.” This is the same department with officers that call me “video boy” out in public like gas stations and harass anyone who happens to be with me. They also towed me car illegally and then amended the police report to fit their story after I complained. The St. Louis County Council ended up paying me and sending me an apology letter for the illegal tow done by the police.

I was’t sure if I should start a new thread, but wanted to give you guys the conclusion to this story.

I have agreed to settle my civil rights lawsuit. Of course, as part of the agreement they said I can’t say anything about it other than what they say in public. Lets just say I’m satisfied...

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/E4A27C88C3F22A7B862575410011ACA2?OpenDocument

St. George, known as a speed trap, opts for patrols by county police
FROM STAFF REPORTS
01/17/2009

St. George — St. Louis County police will begin patrolling the streets of St. George starting next month, county officials said Friday.

The city will become the 17th to contract with the county. St. George officials voted unanimously in favor of the five-year contract for 24-hour police service, according to St. Louis County police.

St. George is the town of about 1,500 where a man in 2007 recorded a police officer’s tirade on a commuter lot near Interstate 55. The video, posted online, briefly put the south St. Louis County community in the spotlight.

The tape caught a St. George sergeant yelling, berating the motorist and threatening to arrest the man on fictional charges. The man said he put a video recorder in this car after previous run-ins with police. The sergeant was later fired.
Before that, the town was known, if at all, as a speed trap off Reavis Barracks Road west of Interstate 55.

Mayor Heather Hediger said six of St. George’s seven officers are applying to join the county force but they would not be policing St. George.

St. Louis County police said residents and business owners would get a letter in the coming days explaining the change. An open house also is planned.

Here is the mayor on TV talking about it as well.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2399325742831738837&hl=en

“Think what you will, call all the names you want. It’s not YOU that is facing such horrendous danger over such a trivial matter.”

Well that might be why we are not on the same page. To me, my Constitutional Rights are not a ‘trivial matter’.

“Once again Brett could end all this easily.”

How is that?

Yes I was taping it. I tape everything now. I’m probably video taping me typing this right now.

*UPDATE*

Sunday I went out to my car and I saw a St. Louis City police car camped out at the bottom of my street dead end street. As I got into the car, he started to pull up the street and him and his partner just stared me down. They stopped again at the top of my dead end street. I started up the car and turned around. As I did this, they took off making a right from my street. I followed. I realized it was on Night Shot mode and flipped it to regular and zoomed in on them trying to get away from me. They ran a red light when they made a right turn by not stopping, then flipped a U-turn knowing I couldn’t. As I came around the corner, they looked at me again, and quickly took off.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5591813350444656353

Then this morning (Monday), I get a call from a St. Louis County detective that has supposedly been asked by the prosecutors office to investigate the possible assault by the officer. I went in to talk with them at 1PM.

The detectives hadn’t seen the tape yet even though they had a copy. That really surprised me and I wondered why not. There questions weren’t even about what happened on that parking lot. They just wanted to know why I was going to the parking lot, what I had done before, and what I had done after this. They even want my Camera so a tech person can look at it and pull up the useless footage from before and after.

Then they got into the deal about it being uploaded off site. I told them it wasn’t true. They then asked if I thought it was a good idea to lie to a police officer. I said, with this officer, HELL YES! He wasn’t a police officer, but a raving lunatic that was going to beat me, arrest me, and maybe kill me that night for no reason. Then he threaten to steal my camera, I had to do something.

I quickly learned that this was about finding something I did wrong and not the officer.

They wanted to take a picture of the camera which I agreed to since it shows how big it is, but then they pressed again about it uploading and wanted to check in the trunk. I told them no. To me, this seemed like they were trying to figure out how to beat my system in the future and spread it around the local LEO community. Well they have a big surprise coming next time they stop me. They’re stupid to think I would just keep using the same thing I currently do.

So I’m going to get a hold of the media again and let them know what is up.

I’ll keep you guys up to date when I can.

“Brett, how many hours of not being stopped by the police have you recorded?”

Thousands. When the camera gets full, I just hit delete and a few seconds later, it’s ready to record again.

I’ve looked at it, but it doesn’t appear to be fast enough to stream a decent picture. I’m still exploring some options and another type of system that should protect me for now has been put in. Send me a private message.

My video camera is on all of the time. I even posted this back in Jan. 07 in another thread.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1761977/posts?page=640#640

“The camera is ALWAYS rolling while I drive my car at night now and most of the time during the day. The reason for this is because I’ve had my rights trampled numerous times even while kissing a$$. I’ve also had officers just make up reasons to stop me (straight up lie about what I did) because I was young, it was late, and they were looking to search a car without probable cause. I’ve tried asserting my rights, but have been threaten with arrest (like I was here) and told it would be the officers’ word vs. mine”

This situation is just another reason why. Do you think I’m the only young person that has had problems with the police? I’m sure all the others that don’t have a tape of their bad dealings with the police are lying, right?

I figured if I had the 5 minutes of driving up until this point, 75% of people would have just shut it off.

“You screwed up and forgot your cellphone. It was important that you get it back that night, even though you had your mom’s cellphone. Your friend only lived 20 minutes away (5+15=20) yet you asked her to get out of bed, get dressed, and drive most of the way to meet you in a deserted parking lot at 2am. Nice guy.”

If you read my post before, you would realized we talked about meeting in another parking lot, but it was on private property and we would have been stopped by the police. This was the only open lot between us.

It was important to get my phone back. That is my work phone for my painting business and I need it. She had work the next and I wouldn’t be able to get it until that night.

“Officer #1: How we doin? What’s going on?
robertpaulsen: Good morning officer. Oh, I’m waiting to met a friend. She’s on her way.
Officer #1: Why you parkin here?
robertpaulsen: Well, this lot is about half way, and she’s bringing me my cell phone that I forgot. Can I park here for about 15 minutes and wait for her? It’s a commuter lot right?
Officer #1: Yeah, but we have problems after midnight time. People break into cars. You got any ID on you?
robertpaulsen: Yeah, I do. Here ya go.

What’s wrong with that?”

Cause in my experience that’s not how it goes when I answer the LEOs questions. It goes more like this.

“Officer #1: How we doin? What’s going on?
Darrow: Good morning officer. Oh, I’m waiting to met a friend. She’s on her way.
Officer #1: Why you parkin here?
Darrow: Well, this lot is about half way, and she’s bringing me my cell phone that I forgot. Can I park here for about 15 minutes and wait for her? It’s a commuter lot right?
Officer #1: Yeah, but we have problems after midnight time. People break into cars. You got any ID on you?
Darrow: Yeah, I do. Here ya go.
Officer #1: Are you sure you’re not here to do drugs or buy some?
Darrow: No officer
Officer #1: Only people out at this time of night are cops, people coming and going to work, and kids up to no good. Which one are you?
Darrow: None of those officers
Officer #1: You calling me a liar? Get out of the car. I’m gonna search your car.

And so on... If you talk to an LEO, they get to personal, and you stop, that can be seen as suspicious according to the courts. A cop that approaches you isn’t looking to be your friend, he’s looking to bust you. He sees everyone as a criminal. Not that it’s really his fault. They teach them that in the academy.

I wouldn’t talk to a stranger about my business out in a parking lot and a police officer is no different. If you had seen this board LEO (you can see him waiting on their only main road waiting for someone going 1 MPH over the limit) turn around right away, come up behind me, and hit the lights, you would have been like WTF too. You have to know this town to know what I mean. They hire all the reject cops that can’t get on real departments and pay them hardly anything. It’s just the cops on power trips.

“No cars broken into in that lot? That should be public information and easy to find. Yet this lie wasn’t reported by the press? “

Yes it should be, but St. George won’t have that info. It’s state owned property and all crimes that happen on that lot are supposed to be reported to the Missouri highway patrol.

Once again, I’ll tell you being in a high crime rate (if you insist on calling this one) is not reasonable suspicion.

“While “reasonable suspicion” is a less demanding standard than probable cause, there must be at least a minimal level of objective justification for the stop. An individual’s presence in a “high crime area,” standing alone, is not enough to support a reasonable”

“If it is not safe for a citizen to be in that public place (even at a legal time and in a legal manner), I don’t believe he has to. I am, however, willing to make an exception in your case.”

It’s not his call to decide. If Missouri thought that lot was trouble after night, they would limit the hours it was open. THEY DON’T! It’s the same thing as pulling into a 24 hour grocery store parking lot.

“Do you have any vids of cops stopping you that have acted professionally? “

Nope. I had one from an officer that acted the way he was supposed to, but he was wrong about stopping me. He said I turned out of the wrong lane and didn’t know the road was a dual left turn lane. It was late and he was just looking to stop someone so he gave me a warning, but he was still wrong and the video showed it.

I accidentally deleted this video while trying to ‘protect’ it that night.

Before I had the video camera though, I had lots of dealings with good officers. Even when I got tickets, I deserved them and the officers were professionals.

One time I parked in a parking lot of a closed business at about midnight. This furniture store has a large parking lot and they turn all the lights off at night so it’s real dark. I went there to adjust my headlights. A Shrewsbury police officer pulled in and I walked over to talk to him. I told him what I was doing and he said that was no problem at all and was a great spot to do it because in metro St. Louis, there are lights everywhere else. It felt nice not to be treated like a criminal right away.

Yes, I do have a scanner. I have had one since my parents bought it for me back in 3rd grade to listen to all the stuff going on when there would be an accident up on the highway I live near. Although a scanner won’t do you any good in St. George. They use Nextel cell phones as walkie-talkies to talk to each other. This PD is a big joke.

Well I do in fact ALWAYS use turn signals. I take driving very seriously.

Even if I did not, Everyone knows while going through St. George, you always follow the rules of the road. That includes making sure your license plate lights are functional, because if they are not, you’ll get stopped and get a ticket.

Okay as far as my friend is concerned...

There have been lots of misquotes and just things said out of the blue in the media and online about why I was there.

I had ethics class that night until 10PM with a friend. Her and I went back to her house (very close to school) to start working on a paper about the harm principle. I left her house at about 1AM. After I got home, I realized I didn’t have my cell phone. I called her and asked if she could meet me somewhere so I could get it back. She agreed. We talked about meeting in a shopping center lot that was almost directly in the middle of us, but I thought we might get trouble from the police or security so I said we should meet in the commuter lot since it’s open 24/7.

I live about 5 minutes away from it and she lives about 15 away. I left right away, but she had to get out of bed before taking off.

I obviously got there before she did and that is when I had the dealing with the officer. As soon as I was aloud to leave, I called my friend on her cell phone with my mom’s cell phone I had taken with me. I told her not to come to the parking lot (she was about 2 miles away), but to instead just go back to her house and I would meet her there. I didn’t want to go to any other parking lots after that incident.

Chief Uhrig has talked to this girl and confirmed the story.

I hope that clears some questions up.

Joseph, it is actually not in St. George, but in unincorporated St. Louis County. Even Chief Uhrig told me this.