Police Profile Man as Cannabis User Because of Frisbee Golf

A video surfaced recently of a driver in Iowa being pulled over and then profiled by the police as a cannabis user because of the disc golf paraphernalia in his car. 

The driver was allegedly pulled over for driving without headlights. Once he had finished delivering the warning, the officer began to push the issue of searching the car, not knowing he was being filmed by the driver. 

He was recorded as saying, “OK. I need you to answer me a question. Why is it that everybody that plays Frisbee golf smokes weed?” When the driver asserted that this was not a true stereotype, and that he would not consent to admitting one way or another if he had ever smoked, the officer replied, “See, there you go. How much weed do you have in the car today?”

He then continued to push the issue, trying to get the driver to admit he had cannabis in the car or consent to a search. Finally, he gave up and let the driver go, and shortly after that the video was released. According to Who TV, Robert Riggs, a law professor from Drake, stated, “What the officer did after that was try to extend that stop into a general search of the defendant’s car, or the individual’s car. That’s not permissible anymore. “The Iowa Supreme Court has held that under the Iowa constitution you can’t convert an equipment violation stop into a general search. and any consent that would have been given would have been invalid in any event.”

The city of Ankeny, where the incident took place, officially stated that, “The officer engages the driver in a line of questioning that is foolish and not representative of the Ankeny Police Dept.`s training or interactions with the public. This verbal exchange did not meet the level of professionalism expected of Ankeny police officers. Ankeny Police Chief Gary Mikulec respectfully apologizes for the officer`s demeaning statement.”

This is a small victory for anyone who has ever been unjustly questioned and detained by an officer, and hopefully this will set a precedent for incidents like this in the future.