Booze in the RV... Legal?

jwstrout wrote:
I'm going to chime in here..........as a cop.

The following comments are just my opinion, and I make no claim that they are all encompassing, and cover every little nuance that individual state laws address.

Legal in your specific area or not, I would not allow anyone to consume alcohol while I was driving, and the RV was in motion. That being said, I would not for a second worry about open bottles that are capped, and stored within the living areas of an RV. I also would not worry about empty bottles that are clearly in a trash container.

While states manage their own alcohol laws, the Bill of Rights is always applicable. You are constitutionally protected against illegal search, and seizure, no matter your location in the United States of America. At the end of the day, if an officer wants to search, short of some exigent circumstance, you MUST provide consent to search or a search warrant MUST be obtained. You have an expectation of privacy in your domicile. An RV certainly qualifies as that.

Happy camping, and have a drink for me,

Jeff

Thanks. Your point of view is especially helpful. But I have not always found EVERY police officer to be as friendly.

Years ago, me and my buddy were driving to Florida... he was moving there and his car was PACKED will all his stuff. We got pulled over in NY city for having "temporary plates" (he had just bought the car a week ago). We were not speeding, neither of us do ANY drugs and had not been drinking... But they took us out of the car.. took EVERYTHING out of the car and scattered it all over the road (we were on the shoulder of the highway at night). Once they didn't find anything, they said "Have a nice trip" and drove away. Took us like half an hour to pack the car back up... But I feel that if they had found ANYTHING at all they could have used... Our night would have been even worse.

I just like to play it SUPER safe. Cops are usually pretty good to me... I have ZERO hits on my record. No tickets or anything. But still, once in a great while, you find the guy who says "Pop your trunk for me". I feel like after "Breaking Bad" every cop will want to check out the inside of EVERY RV. lol

BTW... My brother in law is a cop.. but he is the kind of guy that replies "I would absolutely search the RV".