If it matched the description of a car used in a crime they should have been able to search.
“If it matched the description of a car used in a crime they should have been able to search.”
No, that is probable cause to stop and question him, but not probable cause to search the vehicle. They would need some specific information that he was involved in the crime, or to witness some specific indication of criminal behavior (hence why they wanted to bring the drug dog in), in order to search the vehicle without a warrant once he refused to consent.
Probable cause for searches needs to be specific, otherwise, if the police get a report that a red Honda was involved in a crime, they could just get the DMV registrations for every red Honda and then go search all of them without warrants in a blanket sweep. That’s not constitutional, nor is searching just one random red Honda they see driving along, without additional reason to suspect that is the one that was involved in the crime.