I was moving from Alaska to Boston, so I had to pass through Canada. Everything I owned was crammed into my Honda Element and I was driving it solo across North America.

I re-entered the US at a border crossing in North Dakota. I pulled up to the window and without saying anything else the officer pointed at a detached garage and told me to pull into it. As I slowly pulled into the garage, there was only enough light to see the outlines of the walls. When I turned off my car, super bright lights were switched on and I saw 6-8 heavily armed border officers with bulletproof vests on either side of the car. One of them instructed me to get out of the car and give him my keys. He also took my passport and took me into a small room in the garage that had 1-way mirrors (so they could observe me and I couldn’t see out) and then he locked me inside. There was nothing inside the room except a few folding plastic chairs – nothing to read and nothing to look at, nothing aesthetically pleasing at all. I could hear them going through my car, removing my plastic totes full of shit and searching through them. After what was probably 20 minutes, they opened the door, handed me my keys and passport and told me, “You’re free to go, welcome home.”

I got randomly selected at an airport (surpise im brown) The crotch patting in the middle of the airport while hella ppl watch was weird af ngl, Itried to make it awkward for them but it was still ass. I was just talking loudly about what was happening the whole time, like oh you actually touch me there wild, out in the open crazy, this was the columbus airport and I obviously sound like im from california not indian, my friend was just lowkey in shock half laughing half staring in shock that I actually got randomly searched. I had a microfiber cloth in my pocket which prob set it off to be fair, was just awkward af that it was only me to get selected. This was after lost lands so there were hella white ravers in the airport ahead of us.

I’ve had my car searched before. It was unlawful.

This was over 20 years ago when it happened. I was about 19 at the time and in college. The cop ordered me to sit on the curb while he tore up my car. I was a dude with long hair at the time and when he pulled me over for the tinted windows he said that he, “saw shake in the backseat.”

The shake in the backseat was fiction.

Car got torn up, he said he thought my eyedrops were GHB and that he wanted to test them. I told him that’s fine.

He came back to me after a few minutes and said that his test kit is expired and that he was going to call someone else out to test it.

Second cop comes up, he’s less of a dick than the first guy. Goes to his trunk, fucks around, determines his kit is also expired.

A third cop comes out. Also, less of a dick than the first guy. They test my eyedrops and determine they are eyedrops, not GHB.

First cop resumes tearing up my car.

First cop asks me, “where are you going?”

I tell him I’m on my way to work.

He asks me if I am in school. I replied, “yes, UCF.”

He asks, “what are you studying?”

“I’m a junior in the pre-law track with a minor in criminal justice.”

He then decided he was going to “let me go.”

The whole time this is happening there’s an older dude with long grey hair sitting across the street with a couple of grocery bags watching the whole thing. Cops asked him what he was doing a couple of times and he would tell them he’s watching what’s happening on the walk home from the grocery store. After the cops were gone, and I was doing my best to reassemble my car, he came by to say he was going to be a witness for me in case something went down. He went on to explain how he was a Vietnam vet and when he got back to the states he had been arrested for smoking a joint, and has subsequently hated cops ever since. He then told me his son is a lawyer and if I needed help with this scenario to get in touch.

Awesome guy. He was 100% the shit.

The second and third cop were pretty reasonable for cops.

I hope the first cop ended up getting repeatedly gang raped in a prison.

Yes. I have been thrown against a wall and very intimately frisked by police for looking at them wrong.

But - that was in LA when cops there were basically just a well armed gang. I’ve never experienced anything that crazy since.

Most of the searches I’ve gone through have been less than lawful. I don’t think most lawful officers spend their days doing stop and search. Policing was different 20 years ago, haven’t had problems with the police in almost 10 years

Important context: White male 20something, big expensive sedan, Early 2000s YMMV.

On the highway in the Deep South United States. Pulled over for speeding. Police wanted to search the car. I refused, they called in a K9.

I was pulled to the side of the road and sat down in the grass while we waited for the dog. Bunch of other officers started rolling up and just hanging out expecting what I can only imagine to be the biggest bust in a while.

The K9 got a hit and they searched the entire car. They found a glass pipe buried in an old cigar box in the back of the car in a book bag. The cops were absolutely and completely confused. “There has to be more, the dog woulda never hit on this if there wasn’t more.” The cops kept searching.

I wasn’t handcuffed or anything, someone was just watching me. A pipe was a misdemeanor where I’m from, but jail time/probation where I was stopped.

After an hour of searching they found nothing else and handed me my pipe and box and told me to throw it in the woods and to leave. Wasn’t worth the paperwork.

Absolutely not an issue, but I’m not living in the US, so we have real police, not just cops.

I had a large bag with a white powder on the passenger seat, but they were probably a bit disappointed that they did not catch a drug lord. It was just sodium alginate to make ice cream.

Never searched other than at airports security check.

But I have been questioned by airport security guards outside the airport.

I was at my favourite photo spot by the airport, it was evening, late summer in Sweden, there had been an gorgeous sunset, with aircrafts landing directly into the sunset.

Anyway, I was almost done and wanted to take a few more photos of the next aircraft coming into land.

The photo spot I was at was outside the fence but among the approach lights, it is a very popular spot to watch aircraft.

Anyway, as I am standing there with my camera on a tripod, waiting for the next plane, I see two small cars with emergency lights comming from opposite ends of the road, stopping by the barrier to stop cars from driving up among the lights, two guards approach me.

And I stand there, overweight, wearing a linnen shirt and linnen shorts, with a camera on a tripod, and before they could say anything, I just asked innocently “Hi, have I done something wrong?”.

They were clearly not really sure and responded in a slightly sheepish tone “We are not really sure…”

I explained that I was just about to take some last photos before heading back to the bus to go home.

There wasn’t much more to say, I packed up my things and walked back to the bus stop.

Second to last time I visited Spain, I was selected randomly for an extra check at the airport as I was traveling home to Sweden, they swabbed my jacket and my backpack, they were perfectly polite and professional.

2 years ago I went for a walk at night and marked police car pulled up by me, they got out of the car, asked for my ID, asked a couple of questions, searched me and left.

The whole interaction was pretty short and they were really proffessional.

(This was in Europe).

Yes, in the US, at an airport, I was selected for additional screening by a TSA agent. The agent put on gloves and patted me down. He had me extend my arms out and said he was going to check my waistband. When he got around to the back, he shoved a finger down my ass crack and wiggled it, then continue on. It took half a second. My mind blanked.

I called to make a complaint the next day but got nowhere. Too late, too “minor”, not enough details or evidence from me. I was told it didn’t really happen, because if it had I would have spoken up in the moment.

If I am ever selected for patdown again, I intend to ask for an agent of the same gender as me, to have a supervisor observing, and cameras recording.

I was randomly selected for extra screening at the airport twice in one trip. That is about it.

I didn’t get searched, but I did get pulled over once and interrogated for about 20 minutes while the cops tried to dig up some reason to ticket me. This was during Obama years, I’m Hispanic and was driving a beat up car.

The cops implied that I had been drinking (false), I had been on a party boat (also false, I was on a transport ferry and couldn’t even go inside because of my dog), and that my dog was dangerous (she was asleep on the passenger seat), among more.

Only things like airport security, or when going to music festivals or other events, they’ll (sometimes) check you for weapons.

Lived in 4 different countries in the past decade, all in the EU.

Whitey here. I once got stopped by border patrol at an immigration checkpoint on the freeway. They had me pull off to the side, pulled all the shit out from under my seats, out of the door pockets, etc. Opened the trunk and took everything out. Brought a dog over. Then said I was good to go. Took me a little to get everything put back in place.

Last time I was stopped was flying back after taking a solo surf trip to Central America. They just couldn’t handle that I went by myself. Took me into a little room at the airport. Took my boards out of my board bag, emptied my carry-on and suitcase, then tried to grill me about what I had been doing. I had a 5 hour layover, so I wasn’t overly concerned. Just seemed so stupid.

A cop once asked me to shake my backpack to make sure there were no graffiti cans in there. Obviously there weren’t.

Now I’m involved a bit in activism get searched on the regular. It’s mostly procedural, I have the privilege of being not really considered a criminal.