37 points

DO NOT GIVE THEM YOUR PHONE

DO NOT TALK TO POLICE

Your ONLY responses should be to identify yourself, and “I will not make any statements without my lawyer present.”

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1 point
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Serious question, what gets you into these situations that you need to safeguard your belongings so hard? I’m asking to understand not to make a shit post thread.

Edit: 13 hours later…not a single one of you?

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1 point

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15 points

It’s not possible not to it you want to visit USA. If you don’t, they’ll reject your visa or deny entry. Thr only way is to use brand new cheap android before or after ( after is better ) and resell it once you go back. Most corporations do so

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22 points

So the answer is to not visit the US then.

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14 points

Don’t you want to see our amazing 200 years as a nation and 500 years of massacre sites??!!?

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9 points

No, but your weird obsession with ridiculously unhealthy food is somewhat interesting.

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8 points

it’s a policy that has never let me down

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12 points

They only need to be 500 miles near you, if they pay for the good juicy 2G exploits 😉

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10 points
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A lot of countries have disabled their 2G networks (and 3G in some cases). I think 4G and 5G have a more secure signaling protocol than SS7?

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3 points

Australia is currently in the process of phasing out 3g, which is annoying cause a 3g hotspot is the only way I can consistently get my 2ds connected to the internet

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2 points

Hu? Hotspot is wifi, so what Generation of mobile Network is used should not impact that. The problem with DS would only be wpa2 not supported, but that does not matter, if you do not set a password.

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2 points

Well, it does not matter if the country has no 2G. The thing is, that your phone is 2G compatible. They tell the phone something like “ehh, at this spot we have only 2G roaming” and phone is like “sure, let’s downgrade to 2G”

Profit.

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2 points

Ohhh I didn’t consider that. Good point!

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142 points
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I’m sorry if this is a stupid question, but what is the best way to refuse to do this?

Say you’re in xyz situation and a cop demands your phone. You say no. They get angry, maybe make some threats (whether true or not), etc.

What is the best way to say no, you aren’t comfortable, come back with a warrant, without pissing them off royally in such a way that things end up worse for you?

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2 points

Do you have a warrant? Then sorry officer I will not hand it over per my fifth amendment right.

From there just say you’re not saying anything else without a lawyer and then just keep demanding a lawyer.

Yes. The cop will get pissed off. But better him mad then you spending years trying to get out of a bogus charge because of some bullshit they found on your phone. Better to be annoying and demand to speak to a lawyer.

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176 points
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in such a way that things end up worse for you?

IANAL. This is what they want you to think, “just do this and it’ll be better for you”. It might be a short term hassle waiting for the drug dog, or being arrested while they conduct their investigation. But long term it’s the court that matters. And the court will throw out anything obtained illegally or the cops do illegally.

Cops are not there to help you, they just want to find someone to pin a crime on. The only one that will help you is your lawyer. Stfu. Don’t talk to the police.

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112 points

This. You have rights, but the police will lie, cheat, and steal their way into getting whatever they want, especially when what they want is for you to waive your rights.

When stopped by the police (in America), you say “I invoke my fifth amendment right to not answer questions and I don’t consent to any searches and seizures. Am I being detained or am I free to go?” That question starts a clock for what is a reasonable amount of time to detain you for their investigation because you’ve made it clear that you’d like to leave as soon as you’re legally allowed to.

As for any kind of force, just stay silent and unthreatening. They’re gonna do what they’re gonna do, and anything you do can be used as rationalization for escalation, which they really seem to fucking love. Be polite when you do choose to speak. Obey lawful commands and let them arrest you if that’s what they’re gonna do. You don’t fight armed thugs in the street, you fight them in court. File complaints and sue when they violate your rights and cause undue harm. Swinging at them or shouting in their face is how you get shot. Let their ego win the moment and then administratively destroy their career and life later on.

I’m also not a lawyer, but this is what any half decent lawyer would tell you to do. Just shut the fuck up (but invoke your right to shut the fuck up or your silence can actually be used against you) and be as passive as possible so your lawyer has a slam dunk case getting your charges dropped and/or suing the everloving fuck out of them, hopefully nullifying their qualified immunity in the process. Nothing you do or say to the police can help you, but it sure as shit will be used against you. Even things you think are innocuous can corroborate that you’re who they’re looking for, so just shut the fuck up.

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44 points

To add to this spending some time in custody is inconvenient, but losing your rights being convicted of something you didn’t even do is more inconvenient. You think you know what to say until you say the wrong thing and start digging a hole.

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19 points

But sir, this doesn’t sound like protect and serve at all!

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15 points

I hate advice like this because you just say empty terms like “obey lawful commands” after saying to not do anything. The question is how do we do this practically. Cops can lie. They can just say whatever is a lawful command. This is why this sort of advice needs to be more specific.

A good example, presenting your driver’s license for traffic stops. That’s usually a law, is it not? But you say to not consent to searches or seizures. The whole reason people ask for specific practical advice is because they don’t wanna get fucked over by the cops but also don’t wanna get fucked over for unintentionally pulling sovereign citizen like bullshit.

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62 points
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Important addition: don’t just shut the fuck up.

First, in some jurisdictions, failure to identify is an arrestable offense. Full name, date of birth, relevant cards/papers.

Second, if you need to reach for something, say something so they don’t think you’re about to pull a weapon on them. Officer safety is always a concern in the land of handing out guns like candy.

Third, explicitly state that you are exercising your fifth amendment rights. Otherwise you might run into an “I want a lawyer, dawg” situation.

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21 points

Not something I expected to look up today Context

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7 points

in some jurisdictions, failure to identify is an arrestable offense

There’s nowhere in the US that is true without reasonable, articulable suspicion (Terry v Ohio)

explicitly state that you are exercising your fifth amendment rights.

You really don’t need to do that unless you’ve already started answering questions, but it is good practice.

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8 points

It might be a short term hassle waiting for the drug dog

FYI thats illegal (US vs. Rodriguez)

being arrested while they conduct their investigation

Detained*

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-7 points

They can’t detain you in the US for the purpose of conducting an investigation

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5 points

Thank you!

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129 points

what is the best way to refuse to do this?

try to be as white as possible.

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37 points

They definitely slam white people’s heads into the ground for telling them no, too.

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17 points

but black people are free practice targets to them

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10 points

Not always.

If you’re not white, it is ALWAYS.

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61 points
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Just the act of refusing makes the act of seizing your phone legal or not. If you legally give them your phone by your own will, they are able to use all evidence they find in the courts. If you deny to give them your phone, and they seize it anyways and access it you have a valid path to throw the evidence they discover out as an illegal search and seizure of your property. I’m not a lawyer but that is the general thought process on denying them access to your property.

Edit: Just want to say this mostly pretains to United States law and similar legal structures. This advice is not applicable everywhere and you should research your countries rights and legal protections.

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10 points

Never thought about it this way. Thanks!

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53 points
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“what’s a phone?”

“I don’t know why my fingerprint isn’t working” (biometrics are disabled)

“I don’t remember my passcode” (it’s a pattern input field)

“The guy at the phone place changed it for me”

“It’s never really worked right.”

“There’s no Google on it tho.” (What does this even mean?)

“Who do you need to call anyway?”

“Can’t you just use your own phone?”

Just act like the dumbest creature on earth.

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17 points

And if you’re Black - get shot for “talking back”

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2 points

input the wrong password like 5 times to lock up the phone then say its muscle memory and you don’t remember the password numbers

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2 points
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iPhone tip to require password to open:

  • Hit lock five times

or

  • Hold lock & at least one volume button

(Edit: ahh, this tip’s been given several times now, only new info is that either volume down or volume up or both will work)

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-2 points

This is how you go to prison.

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-1 points

you can lie to cops but not feds

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21 points
16 points

Q: Is it shut the fuck up Friday?

A: It’s always shut the fuck up Friday.

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9 points

Oh man that was fucking hilarious! Thanks for making my night!

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-1 points

Mobile youtube links, gross

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5 points

Sounds like someone could use some more shut the fuck up Friday in their life 😘

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20 points

It depends a lot on your location on the planet.

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9 points

And skin color

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11 points
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My wife, a person who passes for pale white, refused to allow a police officer to investigate her car after a speeding ticket. I wasn’t here. Her car apparently "matched a description " but they had nothing. She told me they spend another 15 minutes having her sit on the shoulder, then let her off.

I drove with my family through the south. Had two kids in the car. I’m also brown. No reason to be pulled over, but I did have plates from Ohio since it was a rental. Shitty cop said there’s a lot of folks “in his parts” that smuggle drugs using rentals and kods and demanded I open the trunk. I kept saying I’m trying to visit my family, I got kids in the car. 20 minutes with a crying kid, In frustration, I relented, showed him the empty trunk.

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17 points
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Depends on local laws, but if the cops ability to seize your property without warrant isn’t protected by local laws:

Ask if they have a warrant and if they don’t then take your phone oout and power it down, then put it back in your pocket and tell them they can direct complaints to your lawyer because you’re not handing over any devices.

If they seize it without a warrant then you can sue the department, although if they have reasonable suspicion then you won’t have much luck.

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6 points

In the states, they’ll just accuse the phone of committing a crime and take it anyways

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3 points

In 2015 they took a black man’s car and he took them for 1.25 Million.

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16 points
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You can be polite and decline consent without resisting. “I do not consent to any searches or seizures”. If it’s taken from you illegally then anything they find is inadmissible in court. If it’s taken from you legally, ain’t shit you can do anyway.

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11 points
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Disable biometrics

Android: look up “lockdown mode”

iOS: hold volume down + power, or press power 5 times fast.

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8 points

Better: restart the phone. This puts it into the safest state it has, as it has not yet been initially unlocked and will require a non-bio auth. Stronger security, may/should hold if they attempt to attack/hack/compromise it, if it comes to that. Takes like 3 seconds. Do it, not the equal-time-worse-security version of just disabling bio.

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4 points

Additionally, running GrapheneOS you can set up a duress pin to wipe the phone profiles if things were to escalate.

Being smart, set up the main profile a bit to look real, but have no actual information. That way it’s not obvious tha its been wiped.

Being cheeky, set the duress pin to be something simple like your birthday. So if you are detained/arrested and they try to get into your phone they are the ones to wipe it for you.

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7 points
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I imagine something like “I do not consent to a search nor seizure of any of my property. May I reach into my pocket so I may place my phone in plain view? If my property is going to be seized even against my will, I still want to ensure everyone’s safety.”

Then repeat the no consent line as you place your phone on your dashboard or whatever.

I imagine this means your lawyer will have body cam footage of the double nonconsent and the judge will see you were willing to comply even with potentially unlawful orders so the justice system could sort it out in court instead of someone trying to fight it out on the street.

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124 points

If you absolutely have to hand over your phone, turn it off completely, like hold the power button and then tap the off icon. That will dump any keys out of RAM, which is why it always requires the full password to unlock when you turn it back on. Both in terms of how your phone works and the leaks we’ve seen, the cracking tools the police have are overall significantly less likely to be successful when used on a phone that’s been turned off and not unlocked since.

Also, IIRC iphones have a feature where they will dump at least some of the system keys from RAM if you push the lock button five times. I’d still trust fully off more but that’s easier to do covertly.

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45 points

Five times wanted to set off an emergency service call and sound the alarm 🚨 YMMV (Pixel 7)

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22 points

Additionally, with the Pixel 9 holding down the power button no longer turns it off, you have to press power and volume up at the same time to get to the power menu.

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21 points

That can be changed in the settings

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4 points

There’s usually a hardware level power off function for when the device freezes and stuff. Can usually hold the power button for ~10 seconds will power off the device without needing to look at the screen

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1 point

Holding the power button for 1 second also opens the menu.

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1 point
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I use KeyMapper to map “long press of the lock button while screen is locked” to the lockdown/secure lock action

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12 points

My country has made it illegal to not give your keys.

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19 points
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What county is this, so I know to avoid it?

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8 points

A lot countries have this now.

Even for a number of countries where it’s not technically enshrined in law, police can still effectively do it anyway, by detaining you for as long as they like until you comply.

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4 points

Some European one.

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7 points

Sounds like it’s time for the deniably encrypted phone.

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8 points

Also on Android press the power button and volume up button simultaneously, and then press lockdown.

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