That gets into a really gray area then. There used to be a good dashboard camera show called Real Stories of the Highway Patrol. It was good because that one guy from Portland had nothing to do with it. Anyway, a common practice there was to pull someone over. In Utah, anything hanging from the rear view mirror is cause enough because it obstructs your view. Now that they have you pulled over, they ask if they can search your car. If you say "no" which is your right, they can use it as probable cause to call out the drug dog, often saying something about how long it will take to get it out to you before they can let you on your way. Many people cae at this point ans give consent to search. Legally, it's allowed, but I don't think it's right. On the other hand, I've been pulled over a couple of times and they've never asked to search the car. A big part of it is how you act from the moment you stop your car.
Heh, I'll probably never get any of you to agree with my view on these tactics. It sounds unfair, but when you're on the beat in the same area day in and day out, there's those situations where you know(and I mean litterally know) someone is guilty of some bigger infration (eg. known dealer) but you can't just pull him over because of that. So you look for something like illegal tinting of car windows, no tag on front, brake light out, etc.

Now most people say "that's bull! blah blah blah" but if you do have something to hide, then shouldn't you be smart enough to not draw attention to yourself by having illegal tint, no plate, etc?

It's like people who drive w/o a license and then speed. If you know you're driving illegally, why speed? If you drive the limit and use your signals, they'll probably never find out because you won't get pulled over. Same with people who drive without insurance (insurance is mandatory in I think every state now, or at least most). If you know you don't have it, don't do anything to get pulled over. But they still speed, don't use signals, do U-turns...if anything they do these violations more than the average driver. Then it's "oh boo-hoo I got my license revoked" when they get pulled over. Stupidity knows no bounds.

Anyway, yes these tactics can be abused. My opinion is that the good that comes from it outweighs the bad. Most people don't share that view, and I understand that.

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I'm like one of those idiot savants...well, except for the savant part.
"In order to increase awareness of the homeless, security have been given binoculars."