By Police1 Contributor
Semis can be a great mode of transport for drug runners. They can carry tremendous amounts of contraband and wise mules will understand that they can be a daunting challenge for officers who may not know specifically what to look for and where to look or who might look at a fully loaded trailer and consider it an impossible search target and move on.
The “truck driver cover” can also be used by a theatric runner to stress a potentially suspicious officer into moving through a stop faster than he might by playing the “Come on, Officer. Please. Time is money for me and I’ve got kids to feed. Just write the ticket and let me get out of here” routine.
To increase your adeptness at dealing with semis, consider interviewing a legitimate trucker and asking them what to look for. Have the trucker review the trucking paperwork with you and explain what you should and shouldn’t be seeing.
Have them tip you off to things on a truck that could be spotted as out of the ordinary and suspicious (like extra wiring, inconsistencies in the trailer interior/exterior sizes that could reveal a false floor, extra gas tanks, etc.). Also, have them educate you on the trucker lifestyle and trucker jargon that any legit professional will understand, but fake truckers might not so you can ask key questions and look for hesitation or ignorance.
Another key thing to have a legit trucker coach you on is the log book each driver will carry. Here are a few tips from Tactics for Criminal Patrol with regard to evaluating log books:
1. Is it a solid day of driving? Confirm that the distances listed between destinations and the time it took to get to each one are realistic. If it looks like it took a solid day to go a hundred miles or so, ask about that. Wildly inaccurate times could be a sign that a driver simply rushed to fill in a log book so it didn’t look empty.
2. Remember that truckers make money driving, not sitting dormant. When checking logs, look for abnormally long periods of downtime—like days—and if you spot them, ask for an explanation. Keep a close eye out for signs of nervousness or hesitation while he’s answering. Did the question about downtime throw him off? Maybe he wasn’t prepared for an officer to be as probing and alert as you are.
3. Look for odd, indirect routes. Truckers want to be direct and efficient whenever possible. If you review a log book and see that the driver went from Point A to Point B via Point C—which made no sense at all given Point C’s out-of-the-way location—look into it. Again, watch for nervousness or hesitation when you’re getting an answer.
4. Look for lots of errors. Legit truckers are used to filling out log books and the number of mistakes should be minimal. If there are a lot of cross-outs and changes in the log you’re reviewing, start asking questions. Why the inability to document trips without tons of changes? Shouldn’t be that hard…
5. Does the trip make sense? An example cited in Tactics for Criminal Patrol centers around a run of oranges. If the origin of the load is listed as Nashville and the drop location is Miami it should give you pause. Does it really make sense for an orange-producing state to be receiving a load of oranges from another state?
6. Be sure logs are up-to-date. It’s required by law and not being current can be grounds for costly time off the road. Legit truckers will keep their logs current. It’s not worth it not to.
7. Stand your ground. If you think you’re on to something, don’t be pressured by a supposed “trucker” claiming that you’re costing him his livelihood by keeping him from driving on. Also resist being intimidated by the size of the vehicle and the seemingly nightmarish task of searching a fully loaded trailer. Build your case wisely and stick by it. Know what to look for and how to build solid probable cause and when you’ve got what you need, be willing to go for it. You never know what you might uncover!
This article, originally published on February 02, 2010, has been updated.