Question how many people who travel by hitchhiking get harassed by police

Nomad

Nomad

New member
I am curious as to how many people who travel by hitchhiking get harassed by police. I mean do they stop you and check yoy out often or only if your doing something illegal? I am getting ready to hitchhike to the west coast from Pennsylvania and have no ID as mine was stolen and I am a South dakota resident so until I pass through South dakota I have no ID and don't want police jnteractions.
 
Some states have stop and identify laws but for the most part in my experience, they're not going to stop you unless you're beyond the no pedestrians sign or doing something else. If you're on a highway, especially one with a sidewalk, you should be fine, as long as they can't get you for something stupid and obvious like an open container. No pedestrian signs are usually only posted on interstates but that's not always the case. Just keep an eye out for them.

I had a cop run me off of an on ramp recently and I told him oh I didn't even see a sign anywhere, just walked up to the next exit on surface streets and didn't have a problem afterwards a anywhere else. He didn't even ask for my ID, seemed like they were busy catching speeders.

Know your rights and always ask if you're being detained, if they say no, ask if you're free to go and if they say yes, just take surface streets to the next exit. Also, be aware that Pennsylvania is one of 6 states that supposedly makes hitchhiking illegal but I've gone from Wilkes Barre to Harrisburg and back, never once had a cop say anything to me.
 
I just wanted to chime in and say while @TheUndeadPhoenix is correct, IMO the chances of the cops stopping you are medium to high, even if you're not doing anything wrong. Cops know that hitchhikers are more likely than other people to have a warrant they can bust you on.

This is why it's a terrible idea to hitchhike if you have outstanding warrants or if you're a runaway, etc.

Now, not having an ID isn't a crime (yet), so you can always lie and there's nothing they can really do about it unless they take you in and make you give your fingerprints, in which case you're being booked on something already and you're already screwed.

So, if you don't have any warrants, I wouldn't worry about it. Just give them whatever info you want (even your real info if you don't care that much) and be polite and non-threatening, and you'll be fine. They'll just give you back your ID and tell you to stay safe or chase you off, in which case you can just go find another onramp.

on a side note, please try a little harder to post in the correct category next time. this isn't a travel story, and you put no effort into your title.

READ THE GUIDE TO STP WE SENT YOU, FOR GOD SAKES. IM GOING TO START STRAIGHT LOSING MY SHIT WHEN PEOPLE DONT TAKING THE TIME TO READ IT, WE SENT IT TO YOU IN PM AND IN EMAIL, READ THE FUCKING THING. JESUS.

thread moved to the hitchiking section.
 
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I'm going to be straight up here, and say that if you hitch long enough, it's close to a 90%+ rate of running into harassment by police.

Like others have said, know your rights, the laws in each state you are going through, and how to hitch correctly (and as close to legally) as possible.

All of this info is posted in the 'Hitchhiking' section of this website.

If you don't have ID 90% of the time cops are going to ask for your name, date of birth, and state or origin. In my experience, if they can't identify you, or your info comes up obviously fake, they will detain you (if they have nothing better to do) until they can ID you.

The most hostile encounter with police hitching I've ever had, i was with another girl in Dublin, CA outside of Oakland, CA. They rolled up with hands on their guns, telling us to leave immediately. I quoted the CA law and stated that we were within our rights to be there. They put us in cuffs, ran our names, and they threatened jail if we were the longer than 5 minutes later. FUCK DUBLIN CA. Dont take the BART line out there to hitch.

Most of the time you're fine. Make sure you have a nice, big, legible sign with your destination on it. Most of the time I've heard people getting fucked with, its because the cops thought they were panhandling, which is still illegal in many areas to do from a roadway.

Be polite to the cops. Like i said in the last post about getting busted on trains. Talking shit or trying to flex your political views ain't going to get you nothing but a free ride to jail. It ain't worth it. That being said, know your rights, and when to use them.
 
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I've done a lot of hitchhiking. In some states I'd wait on the lawful side of the "No pedestrians beyond this point" sign, other states I'd attach a sign to my pack and just start walking down the highway shoulder for miles until I got a ride. Most states don't allow that. I've done that in states that did allow that and also in states that didn't. I've come into contact only twice with law enforcement.

One time in Clearlake California after I was dropped off there. I was scouting for places to camp and I was crossing a parking lot of a hotel heading to an area ahead and a cop rolled up on me. I gave him a fake name, he went through my pack found my wallet and ID then gave me a stern "talkin to" about how if he was a rookie cop he would have taken me in but since he's such a cool veteran cop blah blah ego stroking power tripping spiel just went in one ear and out the other basically. Nothing came of it, I eventually found a place to camp and hitched out the next day no harm no foul.

The other time a friend and I were picked up walking along the shoulder of the highway just east of Clovis New Mexico by a resigned cop who had an Amarillo rides worth of unsavory shit to say about law enforcement, that was an interesting ride. That's basically it, that's all of my police encounters while hitchhiking. I do think I've been pretty lucky though. I think people tend to get fucked with more than I managed to. I think a lot of times it comes maybe not exactly just when you're actively hitchhiking but also just traversing through cities with a pack on. That's a part of hitchhiking too.
 
stay forward of the “no pedestrians” sign, practice common sense, and you should be fine generally. pretty straightforward imhe
 
Eng JR Lupo RV323 said:
One time in Clearlake California after I was dropped off there. I was scouting for places to camp and I was crossing a parking lot of a hotel heading to an area ahead and a cop rolled up on me. I gave him a fake name, he went through my pack found my wallet and ID then gave me a stern "talkin to" about how if he was a rookie cop he would have taken me in but since he's such a cool veteran cop blah blah ego stroking power tripping spiel just went in one ear and out the other basically. Nothing came of it, I eventually found a place to camp and hitched out the next day no harm no foul.
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Why did the cop search your pack? Did you let him do that without a warrant?
 
wesleywilliam said:
Why did the cop search your pack? Did you let him do that without a warrant?
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They don't, in almost any state i know of, need a warrant to search your backpack. Even on reasonable suspicion they can search your stuff. The 'residence' or 'castle' or whatever laws that dictate someone's vehicle/dwelling and the rights that comes with it, do not apply to a backpack on someone's person.

If it was in a tent, thats a totally different story.
 
Coywolf said:
They don't, in almost any state i know of, need a warrant to search your backpack. Even on reasonable suspicion they can search your stuff. The 'residence' or 'castle' or whatever laws that dictate someone's vehicle/dwelling and the rights that comes with it, do not apply to a backpack on someone's person.

If it was in a tent, thats a totally different story.
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Man that’s some nonsense. I guess it’s the stop and frisk law pretty much
 
wesleywilliam said:
Man that’s some nonsense. I guess it’s the stop and frisk law pretty much
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Ya, the 4th amendment has been through the gambit in the courts over the years, and the people have lost for the most part, state has whittled away at the rights under unlawful search and seizure.

Good news is though, a while ago SCOTUS deemed that people's vehicles can in fact be dwellings, and police need the same type of warrants to search vehicles as the would need to search homes....depending on the circumstance.
 
Coywolf said:
Ya, the 4th amendment has been through the gambit in the courts over the years, and the people have lost for the most part, state has whittled away at the rights under unlawful search and seizure.

Good news is though, a while ago SCOTUS deemed that people's vehicles can in fact be dwellings, and police need the same type of warrants to search vehicles as the would need to search homes....depending on the circumstance.
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All this tells me to travel as a Scout at night and sleep during the day. I have no legal issues but I don't want the "man" going through my personal stuff either.
 
Nomad said:
All this tells me to travel as a Scout at night and sleep during the day. I have no legal issues but I don't want the "man" going through my personal stuff either.
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no one is going to pick you up at night. period. and before someone says, "well, actually..." the reality is that while you CAN try, your success rate is going to be below 10% or less vs doing it during the day, so just don't bother.
 
Matt Derrick said:
no one is going to pick you up at night. period. and before someone says, "well, actually..." the reality is that while you CAN try, your success rate is going to be below 10% or less vs doing it during the day, so just don't bother.
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Absolutely true....even though the last time I threw out a thumb (expecting nothing, of course) at night in Greenville, CA we got picked up by the first vehicle that went by...sometimes the universe surprises you 🤷‍♂️
 
I agree. Your chances of getting a ride in darkness is greatly diminished. Not only because it just comes off sketchier, but also simply because you're way less visible. One of the main things that contributes to whether or not you're gonna get a ride is your visibility.

Like it probably reduces your odds by 95% or so. Then who are you left with? The weirdos that pick up hitchhikers in the middle of the night. That's a rare fucking breed right there and I don't wish that ride upon any of you.

Sure there might be some anecdotal stories of a very kind radio DJ that picked you up in the dark and he was amazing conversation(happened to me once) but those are unicorns. I wouldn't gamble on it. I definitely wouldn't strategize to sleep days and hitch nights, that's for sure. You're playing with fire.
 
Women tend to have an easier time of it when it comes to police interactions but if you're gonna be hitching for any length of time talking to the cops at some point is almost guaranteed. I've normally managed to hold on to an id and when asked for it, I'd just had it over, when I didn't have it I'd just give them my name. Unless you have felony warrants in the state your in or for something serious, they tend to not really care. Even in NYC they had no interest is sending me up to Syracuse for misdemeanor warrants. Not all police interactions end badly either. In some states in the winter they'll hook you up with free hotels, or offer you a ride to the county line. Just be polite and don't power trip.
 
Coywolf said:
Ya, the 4th amendment has been through the gambit in the courts over the years, and the people have lost for the most part, state has whittled away at the rights under unlawful search and seizure.

Good news is though, a while ago SCOTUS deemed that people's vehicles can in fact be dwellings, and police need the same type of warrants to search vehicles as the would need to search homes....depending on the circumstance.
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That’s good in theory but in practice the police will always have a reason to search a car if they will to
 
wesleywilliam said:
That’s good in theory but in practice the police will always have a reason to search a car if they will to
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Not without a valid warrant signed by a judge they won't. The 'smell of marijuana' is usually how they get people. I will always tell people to invoke their 4th amendment rights, even if they do end up searching you.

Never sign any document a cop gives you, relating to searching your vehicle. Its a waiver of you rights under the 4th amendment. Thats usually why I don't travel with weed in my van, and don't drive after drinking. You are going to have some great fucking PC to get into my shit.
 
Matt Derrick said:
no one is going to pick you up at night. period. and before someone says, "well, actually..." the reality is that while you CAN try, your success rate is going to be below 10% or less vs doing it during the day, so just don't bother.
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I would not hitch at night but walk only and sleep during the day. A friend I met taught me how to get rides at truck stops without having to actually stand on the road with a sign or thumb for a ride. Thanks for the great info.
 
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