If I'm not doing anything wrong, why not let police search me?
You have the right to let police search you. You also have the right to refuse -- the choice is yours. Before consenting to a search, you should consider the possible consequences of waiving your 4th Amendment right to refuse.
First, consider that giving police permission to search you if they have no probable cause to do so is like letting any stranger search your stuff. Searches are done quickly and often carelessly. If anything is broken you won't likely be compensated, because you agreed to the search.
Also, you never know for sure what a careless friend or family member might have left in your car at some point. We frequently hear stories where the driver was unaware of a tiny marijuana blunt left in the ashtray, which leads to an arrest. Sometimes police make arrests because they discover a single marijuana seed.
If police find any illegal items after you consent to a search request, you can be arrested even if you had nothing to do with it.
Clip from the DVD, BUSTED: The Citizen's Guide to Surviving Police Encounters
