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With the holiday season in swing and with tons of people going out drinking at all the hotels, bars, restaurants, and night clubs I have noticed lots of empty beer kegs all over the place.  Many restaurants and bars keep their empty kegs out back between their dumpster and their grease trap.  The kegs are empty, right?  So why not keep them next to the worthless garbage?  

They fail to realize that these kegs have a $10 deposit on each of them and that they can be returned to just about any large beverage distributer for $10 each regardless of whether or not they were originally purchased from them.  So would you leave a stack of $10 bills behind your restaurant near the garbage?  That’s essentially what they are doing.

So it would be really easy for someone to take these kegs since they are leaving them out near the garbage (sometimes even in shared or public areas) and return them at the local beverage center for $10 each.

Another crazy thing is that beer kegs only have a $10 deposit, but they cost about $150 to make and they can be sold at scrap yards for as much as $15-$35.  So it may be possible to actually purchase the empty kegs for $10 each and then sell them as scrap metal for even more money.  According to the beer institute this type of practice costs the industry as much as $50 million a year.

They have even considered raising the deposit amount from $10 to $30 to prevent people from selling their empty beer kegs rather than returning them.  See the following article: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=3244421 for details on this.  So it may even make even sense to hold onto these empty beer kegs that are now worth $10 each (deposit value) until this increase takes place and raises the deposit value on kegs to $30. 

I was amazed at the fact that so many bars, restaurants, hotels, and night clubs leave their empty kegs (worth $10 each) near the garbage, but I was totally baffled at the fact that the entire beer keg industry would only require a $10 deposit for something worth as much as $150 and that could be sold elsewhere for as much as $35.  This could totally set someone up to start a business where they purchase kegs for $10 each and sell them for $35 each for a whopping 250% return on each or even as little as $25 each for a 150% return which is still not bad. 

As it stands right now, there is lots of money to be made from the faulty practices and standards with the keg return industry.

About Clones

Many novice growers use seeds because it’s easy and seeds are more readily available in most places than cloned marijuana plants. They simply go through the last couple of bags that they have purchased and save all the seeds. This generally seems to be the way in most part of the United States. However, out here in Sonoma County most of the stuff around here was grown from clones and therefore you will never, ever find a seed. It’s also relatively easy to purchase cloned plants at your local dispensary if you have a medicinal prescription or caregiver’s license.

There are many advantages to growing from clones. First of all you are most likely guaranteed that all plants will be female therefore you will never have any seeds and will not have to remove any male plants. Secondly the clones are most likely taken from a stronger, high yielding plant and therefore you will harvest more bud sooner. Clones are virtually an exact copy of the mother plant so you know generally what type of plant you will be getting rather than having to guess with seeds.

The most popular clones are generally ultra high yielding, fast growning, potent, strong plants that have been bred overtime to produce higher volume, quality bud. Some strains like Purple Mercy are widely available, others like Cheese are more coveted and harder to come by.

Some growers raise plants with the sole purpose of selling the clones. They keep their plants on an 18 hour light cycle and never allow their plants to flower. They make good money selling either freshly cut clones or the more expensive rooted clones.

Cloning from Seeds

Many people opt to purchase a tray of cuttings when starting out, so they get a faster return on their investment
and are able to grow the plants faster. This is sensible, but there is no substitute for learning, and growing from seed teaches you more about the plant. Growing from seed, especially from high numbers of seeds, allows for the selection of a particular plant that best suits your needs.

Be sure that the marijuana plant you are cloning from has no pests, fungus, or disease, as this will infect the clones as well.

I always tell people who start from seed to be sure to take two clones from the bottom of each plant just before putting the plants into flower. These clones should be labeled with the same number as the mother plant from which it was taken, as well as the date it was cut. Keep those clones alive!

When you see which plant produces the best buds and is most worthy of your precious grow space, take the corresponding clones and grow them large under your metal halide on an eighteen hour light cycle. Your next crop can be all cuttings from your favorite plant. This harvest will be much more uniform than the last one, and this will improve the quality and quantity of your yield.

If you grow you should eventually cut and root your own clones. There are many ways to take clones, and I am going to share the simple procedure that I use to take mine. It’s easy to do, especially once you get a feel for it.

How to Take the Cuttings

The best clones are taken from the bottom third of the plant. This is done because the leaves are larger and stronger, and by removing the bottom leaves more light and air can get to the lower part of the plant, making more budsites and giving a higher yield.

To cut clones, pick a plant that has been in the vegetative stage for at least 6 - 8 weeks. Choose the branches that are at least 4″ - 6″ long, with the fullest leaves and the thickest stems. Cut the clones (branches) close to the node.

To get started you will need the following:
a razor blade,
a water sprayer,
a planting tray,
planting medium (peat pellets),
a jar of rooting hormone (Schultz take root)*.

* Clones can be effectively rooted using nothing more than water, however most growers choose to dip their freshly cut stem into either a rooting powder or a gel.

Many growers cut the branch underwater so that no air bubbles will form in the stem of the new cutting. If air enters the stem it will prevent the stem from carrying water and the cutting will die.

Dipping the cut end of the stem immediately into a rooting gel also solves the air bubble problem. If using a powder the cuttings must be wet so that the powder will adhere.

Use a toothpick or a nail to poke a hole in the planting medium, to ease the entry of the cut stem. It is important not to crush or bend the tender stem at all. Try and make the hole about the same size as the stem to be inserted.

When you have your tools and accessories ready and have soaked your medium, you should select a soft, small branch from the bottom of the plant, one that wouldn’t amount to much anyway. If you are planning to keep the plant in vegetative growth to continue taking cuttings then you should take cuttings from any shoots that have two or three nodes. I take cuttings that are between two and four inches long, but some people prefer to take cuttings as long as eight inches.

The stem will root quickly if it is still soft and green, not woody. Make an even, diagonal slice through the branch with your clean razor, below the would-be cutting. Strip the bottom leaves off of the cutting, dip it in rooting gel and plant it. This diagonal cut ensures good rooting along the cut stem.

If you make your cut right above a node on the branch then two new branches will sprout out as if it had been pinched. If you continue in this fashion then your mother will produce an exponential number of cuttings every two weeks. You will soon be proudly giving clones away to your friends (or maybe Sell them).

How to Root the Cuttings

So now you’ve cut and dipped your first batch of clones, stuck them in a medium, sprayed them with water, and put the clear plastic lid on the tray. Now put the tray under fluorescent lights, about six inches away to start with, moving them a little closer every few days. These lights can be placed very close to the cloning tray, to keep the clones from stretching.

I’ve rooted clones on the floor in my bedroom, and in many a veg room in the shade of a leafy mother. Both provide decent ambient light and a good temperature range. 74 degrees Farenheit or 24 degrees Celcius is optimum temperature, but my experience is that as long as it’s close to that it’ll do. The clones must be warm but not scorched. Direct light will burn them because without roots the stem cannot supply the leaves with enough water to match the leaves’ rate of transpiration.

Transpiration is a part of how the plant grows. Water and nutrients travel up the stem from the roots to the leaves, where they are used in photosynthesis. Tiny hairs called stomata sweat out the moisture to allow the stream of nutrients to continue flowing. Wind aids in transpiration by blowing the moisture off the stomata, which is why the lid is so important.

Another way to protect the stomata is to spray a light wax onto the cuttings. This slows transpiration to the point where you don’t even need a lid, and the waxy coating serves as a protection against pests. I suggest you just try using a lid at first.

Remove the lid once a day and fan the cuttings with it for a few seconds. I also like to cut small holes into the corners of the lid so that there is a little ventilation, and I usually put holes into the corners of the tray to allow for drainage if the plants are over-watered. The roots need oxygen to thrive and survive.

Growing Supplies

The medium can be of your choice - water or soil, rockwool, perlite or coco coir. Rooting hormone can be anything from boiled willow bark, to a dissolved aspirin, to the more expensive powder, liquid, or gel form. A clone tray can be anything from one made from any divided tray with a high top, to a professional cloning set - up. A cover is essential, as the high humidity inside the tray promotes growth.

Oasis Foam is my favourite medium because it is so airy and quick to dry, and it has the added bonus of having a neutral pH balance. Olivia’s is my favourite rooting gel, although I’ve tried many and they all work. I find that just soaking the tray before planting is usually sufficient to sustain the cuttings until they are rooted.

There are a number of nutritional additives that may be added to this soaking, but my experience is that they are not essential. You might try Spray & Thrive, Nutriboost, Powerthrive, Superthrive, Olivia’s cloning solution, a mild seaweed solution, or a plethora of other products. Plain water works well too.

After Cutting Care

When the tray feels light water it. If the plants look dry, mist them. Check the bottom for roots after three days. Some strains will root this fast, while others may take up to ten days, or even two weeks. When roots are showing out of the sides and bottom of the medium it is time to transplant them into whatever medium you choose to grow them in.

Generally, your medium will be a pot with a well drained soil mixture, or one of any number of soiless cultures. The latter are definitely an improvement over soil when it comes to speed of production and overall yield, but it is much easier to grow marijuana in soil.

It is not that difficult to set up and operate a hydroponic system, but one detail like a faulty irrigation timer can cause devastation if not immediately corrected.

The hydroponic solution must be monitored closely and kept balanced, while a well prepared soil solution may not need any additional fertilizers for the entire life of the plant. As long as you water the soil when it gets dry the plant will thrive and be happy.

Soil-grown pot is considered by many to have a more palatable taste than hydroponically grown herb, but there are always exceptions to such rules. Some growers get the best of both worlds by experimenting with organic hydroponics, but most use basic stock solutions that contain fertilizer salts in a readily available form. These salts are easy to administer in tried-and-true formulas, but the problem is that these stock solutions tend to leave a metallic taste in the precious produce. Experienced growers know to leach their plants before harvest to remove residual salts from the buds, but it appears that few bother to leach sufficiently for a truly clean, pure taste.

A milder feed solution will prevent the build-up of excess fertilizer salts in the bud. Leaching time varies from grower to grower, from two days to two weeks. Some use plain or distilled water, others simply use a very diluted feed solution.

With care and attention, the clones will develop a root system in 2 - 4 weeks, and will be ready for transplant into soil or hydro.

Clones are Great

Whatever grow system you use, you are bound to use clones sooner or later. They can greatly improve the efficiency of your growing area, and are a fantastic way to preserve your favorite plants.

An exceptional plant can be rejuvenated and cloned even after it has flowered and been harvested. If a small amount of vegetative matter is left growing on the bottom of the plant and it is placed under an eighteen hour light cycle then all the little nuggets will stretch into vegetative shoots, which may then be cloned and grown into a full mother plant, which can be cloned indefinitely. This will provide you with many uniform harvests of your favorite plant.

Happy cloning!

Go to all the cellphone stores in your area, sign up all the demo phones for your very own premium SMS text service, and make $9.99 per demo phone!  Find out how.

Every now and then I receive a random text message on my cell phone.  Sometimes it’s a horoscope reading, sometimes it’s a random stock pick, sometimes it’s a weather report and other times its just some advertising spam. 

I initially thought that it was just an annoyance so I would simply either ignore or delete the message.  I bet the majority of people have the same type of reaction in this situation.

However sometimes the messages reoccur and other times they do not.

Either way at the end of the month I recieve my cell phone bill only to find that I have an additional $4.99 charge for a “third-party” service!

I call up my cell phone company and ask them what this charge is for and they tell me that’s it either a subscription or one-time text messaging service.  They go on to tell me that I can’t cancel through them or get a refund because these charges are from a third-party company and not my actual cellphone carrier.

They simply tell me to reply to all further text messages with the words: STOP or CANCEL to prevent these text messages from reoccurring.  This will cancel the service from here on out, but it will not refund any current or previous charges.

So what does this mean?  This means that you will still be charged for the initial text message regardless of whether you cancel the service immediately and that this “third-party” company could be getting anywhere between 99 cents and $9.99 for sending you this single text message.

I checked my previous cell phone bills from past months only to find that there were similar charges those months that I did not even notice! 

Initially this made me angry, but once I thought about this ingenious business model, I immediately wanted in! 

I bet that at least 70% of the people who receive these type of text messages don’t even notice that they are being charged for these extra services and just pay their bills. 

Background

This type of service is known as Reverse SMS billing or a premium SMS service where companies can bill a user through an SMS text.  This even goes beyond just charging for text messages.  Services like PayPay or GPay allows people to send and transfer money via SMS. People can also charge money to their cell phone account with similar types of services.

Where this money goes

I did some research on this type of third-party text message billing and found that these companies make between half to a third of what they bill, the cell phone company takes one-third and the payment gateway service also gets one-third.

So if they charge 99 cents per month and bill 30,000 people they will be making approximately $10,000 per month.

If they bump this up to $4.99 per month they will be making over $45,000 per month.

So how do YOU set up this type of service?

Companies like Telemedia and TextMarks allow people to set up their own text messaging services for free.

Textmarks is the easiest service to use and allows people to set up a keyword for use on their short code of 41411.

You could set up the keyword, MakeMoney, and when anyone sends an SMS text with the word, MakeMoney, to 41411. They would be signed up for your premium SMS service for either $4.99 or $9.99 per month depending what you want to charge for your service.

Now the difficulty is advertising and getting people to sign up for your keyword.  Unless you want to go the spamming route like many companies do.

Bulk SMS messaging

There are services out there like ClickaTell which allows users to send bulk SMS messages to thousands or perhaps millions of cellphone users.

You could also write a web-based application to do bulk PC-to-Phone SMS texting. 

To stop the use of spamming some of the premium SMS services requires all potential subscribers to reply with a “Y” indicating that they actually understand the charges and want to subscribe to the service.  However, this could potentially be countered and defeated with SMS text spoofing or by writing a web-based application to sign people up for your text service regardless of whether or not they have actually willingly subscribed.

Signing tens-of-thousands of people up for your premium SMS service requires a bit work however it could be highly rewarding and bring in thousands of dollars per month.  However there is an easier way to make a couple hundred per month with much less time and work involved.

Bill the Cellphone Companies Back

Go to all the cellphone stores in your area and sign up all the demo phones for your premium SMS text service! 

In my immediate area there are 3 Sprint/Nextel Stores, 4 AT&T stores, 4 Verizon stores, 3 T-Mobile Stores, and 1 Helio Store.  These 15 cell phone stores had a total of 328 active demo phones that I was able to sign up for my $9.99 a month service.

After the cellphone companies take their cut (~33%) and the premium SMS billing gateways take their cut (~33%).  I am left with $3.00 per subscriber, not too bad, but not great.  Better than nothing though!  So with 328 subscribers at $3.00 per month I am making an easy $984.00 per month.  That’s a decent car payment (this may even cover rent for some people)! 

The Process:
1) Sign up for a shortcode keyword.
2) Set your keyword for premium billing (either $4.99 or $9.99 per month).
3) Go to your local cellphone store and use all the demo phones to text your keyword to their 41411 short code.
4) Clear out all inboxed and sent text messages from phones.
5) Repeat this process at more cellphone stores.
6) Wait for them to mail you a check for approx $1.50 per subscriber ($4.99) or $3.00 per subscriber ($9.99). The more subscribers you have the more you make!

I am billing the cellphone companies back and they are paying for it!  I got my
first check last month.

And things are just getting started…

If I head further into the bay area there are hundreds of cell phone stores with thousands of demo phones so my subscriber list is sure to increase!  I can sign up more phones at my leisure.

Also, the cellphone companies get new phones every few months so this would allow me to return to these stores and sign up all their new phones for my premium service.  Things are just getting better and better!

So what is your take on these premium SMS scam ideas?

I almost got a speeding ticket on Christmas Eve while doing some last minute shopping. 

I was going around 70 mph in a 45 mph.  There was a CHP officer hiding off to the side of the road on a shoulder, along an wide open stretch near a busy shopping turnpike. 

This was an ideal spot to catch people speeding.  I must have been stuck between 6 sets of red lights, between about 50 busy stores for over 20 minutes.  I finally made it past the last set of lights and out of the highly congested area, so naturally I hit the gas and took off to make up for all the lost time between the red lights.  About a 1/4 mile down the road there was a CHP officer hiding behind a couple of bushes off the road, it was an ideal spot to tag speeders on radar, because it was really concealed. 

However, this same concealment prevented the officer from being able to pull out when there is a ton of traffic on this road.  So lucky for me there were at least 20 cars behind me which prevented him from pulling out quickly.  So I zipped into the nearest parking lot,  parked my car and went into a store.  The officer found my car and waited.  I took my time in the store, but the officer had nothing better to do either, so 20 minutes later I walked out past my car where the officer was waiting and walked over to Taco Bell.  By the time I finished eating he was already gone!

It’s been a while since I have looked at radar detectors so I looked online and I found a company, Phantomalert, which sells the latest Radar/Laser detectors, GPS radar detectors, license plate photo blocker sprays and covers, and other devices and information on avoiding traffic tickets.

Based on my research I believe that the Valentine One ($399.99) and the Escort Passport 9500i ($499.99) are the best radar/laser detectors out there for the price.

They also make Photoshield covers for license plates to prevent a car’s license plate from being photographed.

This license plate cover can prevent a car’s license plate from being photographed and can save a person from getting a ticket at those red light cameras.

They don’t recommend using these to block toll booth cameras on the Fast Pass Express Lanes.  However they would probably work for that purpose.

They may also work well with blocking the cameras with the Free Parking trick where you park your car, go where you need to go and then get another ticket from the gate as you return to your car.  When you go to pay for the parking, your ticket will only show that you have been parked there for 5 minutes instead of 5 hours (or however long you were actually there).  This only works some of the time.

Today is December 26th, the day after Christmas, the day where the majority of retail stores brace for large numbers of store returns.  People receive presents for Christmas that they do not want, that are the wrong size, or that they already have so they go to the store where they are purchased and then either exchange them or return them for cash. 

Sometimes stores offer a gift receipt, other times there is no receipt, however many high-end retail stores do not require receipts on returns especially for people who have a line of credit with this retail store.

Make a Quick $100 with a little Return Scam

So what if you buy an item from the factory outlet store at a discounted price and then return it to a high-end retail store for full price?

Chelsea Premium Outlets is the largest operator of premium factory outlet malls across the United States.  They have a mall in Petaluma, Napa, and Vacaville in the bay area (just to name a few).  They have high end stores such as Fendi, Nautica, Coach, Calvin Klein, Liz Claiborne, Ralph Lauren, Sak’s Fifth Avenue, Perry Ellis, Gucci, etc and thousands of others.  They offer regular mechandise at discounted prices and frequently have sales on these discounted prices for even more savings. 

Here are some examples:

Polo Black Cologne Set w/4.2 oz cologne and deodorant.
$69.78 retail price
$30.00 factory outlet store price w/40% off sale
——————-
$39.78 difference

Coach Soho Purse.
$289.99 retail price
$189.00 factory outlet store price w/20% off sale
——————-
$100.00 difference

If there are no factory outlets near you.  You can always purchase items from an online store or off of ebay for a discounted price.

The next step is to head down to an expensive shopping district such as Union Square in San Francisco, Times Square in NYC, or even your local shopping mall and then return the merchandise purchased at the outlet mall, online, or off of ebay for full price.

Stores such as Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdales, Macy’s, Nordstroms, Filenes, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Sephora have very lenient return policies where they will accept returned merchandise without a receipt and sometimes even without the actual box.  I have only encountered a small amount of questioning and resistence when making these types of returns.  It may help if you show them a charge card from their store especially a high-end platinum card, but most of the time this is not necessary.  They will often make the return without any questions and give you cash.  If they ask questions you can always tell them that you either lost the receipt or that it was a gift and there never was a receipt.

Using this trick you can make a quick and easy $100 or even more!  I made my quick $139.78 today.   Shhh!  Don’t tell them that I told ya, tho.  It’s our little secret, ok?

A really curious thing happened to me a few years ago after I bought coffee from a local cafe. I handed the cashier a $20 bill and she gave me a few bills back in change. I noticed that one of the $1 bills with “WheresGeorge.com” stamped all over it. 

I immediately thought that this was a brilliant marketing idea.  Just imagine how many people would see this stamped bill as it changed hands countless times from person-to-person.  One stamped bill has the potential of being circulated to thousands of different people all over the world during it’s lifetime.

This concept was not new to me.  Back in middle school my friends and I were into playing jokes on one another involving prank phone calls.  We would do things such as call all the doctors and dentists in the phone book and leave messages on their answering machine or with their answering service and give them a friends name and phone number.  The next day they would get calls from tons of dentists and doctors - all day long.   We later came up with the idea of writing a girls name and a male friends phone number “Jenny xxx-xxx-xxxx” on dollar bills with a heart next to it.  In the upcoming weeks, months, and years he would get countless calls from callers asking to speak to Jenny.  It was hysterical!

I know I had run across one of the estimated 103 million bills stamped with WheresGeorge.com before, but this time I was really curious.  I had initially thought that this might be a political site about George Bush, but it turned out to be a site that tracks bills as they float across the country and beyond.

I was far more concerned with whether or not this viral form of guerilla marketing a website’s URL on currency is legal or not — because if it is, I’m all over it!

Is this Legal?

Hank Eskin, the WheresGeorge.com brainchild pictured above, says people tell him all the time that defacing dollar bills is illegal. But he claims it is not, as long as the money is still spendable. 

The treasury’s website  states that it’s illegal to deface or damage money to the point of it’s being unusable so that painting the whole thing with black paint would be illegal (but painting only one side could be argued to be legal).

Claudia Dickens, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, agreed with Eskin, as quoted in The New York Times she said, “According to the laws as they stand now, the practice is not illegal.

 ”Whoever mutilates, cuts, disfigures, perforates, unites or cements together, or does any other thing to any bank bill, draft, note, or other evidence of debt issued by any national banking association, Federal Reserve Bank, or Federal Reserve System, with intent to render such item(s) unfit to be reissued, shall be fined not more than $100 or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.”

Now it’s also illegal to alter a bill/coin in such a way as to change it’s face or collector’s value (such as tearing corners off a $20 and taping them to a $1, a very cheap and yet sometimes quite successfull way of counterfeiting, or to change a common coin to look like a rarer one) but these fall under fraud statutes and isn’t really what’s being discussed here
anyways.

As long as the dollar can still be used as a dollar (even if it’s in pieces, the bank can still replace it for a whole one and send that one to be destroyed) and there’s no fraud intended, it’s legal.

Stop Selling the Stamps

Yet the Secret Service reportedly hassled Hank Eskin to stop selling the WheresGeorge.com stamps that are still being sold by other people, saying that was using money for free advertising.

And Jim Mackin, an agent assigned to public affairs in the Washington office of the Secret Service, told the St. Louis Dispatch in 2002 that: “We would discourage anyone from participating in such a scheme.”

Mackin said that violators who are caught are told to cease and desist - and usually do to avoid legal action.

Making Money with Money

All of this back and forth between the Secret Service and these websites has not stopped WheresGeorge.com and all its imitators and followers from tracking currency as bills make their way across the globe.

Seeing as though I’m more obsessed lately with how much money bloggers and webmasters are making, I tried to track down Eskin’s income from WheresGeorge.com, since I noticed he’s running Google Adsense ads on the site.

What I did find were WheresGeorge.com’s advertising rates, which give information about the site’s pageviews and how much they charge in terms of CPM — or cost per thousand impressions.

Putting these numbers into a Google spreadsheet.  I was able to discover that WheresGeorge.com could be pulling in anywhere from $7,600 (the presold WheresGeorge.com advertising space not listed as immediately available) up to $43,320 per month — the revenue generated if all available slots were sold.

Not bad for Eskin, who says WheresGeorge.com is mainly a fun habit, and that he’s not selling anything. And while the income generated by the site has been said to cover the cost of servers and other hosting expenses, I’d bet you anything that WheresGeorge.com’s money is covering a whole lot more than this now, years later.

Good for Eskin for coming up with a fascinating and ingenius approach to free website marketing.

Check out the video below for the firsthand story behind the government’s reaction to his website.

This concept is like having a business card that is guaranteed to get passed around from person-to-person until it falls apart.  People can throw out business cards, but they will NEVER throw out money, regardless if it’s a $1 bill or a $100 bill it will definitely be circulated to hundreds if not thousands of people all over the world.

So if you want an awesome idea to promote your website for FREE then follow this approach, use money to make money and put your money to work for you!  Stamp your site’s URL on dollar bills, spend the money like you would normally, and watch your “direct link/bookmark” traffic increase. 

To effectively avoid staying out trouble with the police you need to know your rights. There are some things you should do, some things you must do and some things you cannot do. If you are in the middle of a police encounter, you may need a handy and quick reference to remind you of your rights and obligations.

If necessary you can print this entry and carry it in your wallet, pocket or glove compartment to give you quick access to your rights and obligations concerning police encounters.

Be polite and respectful. Never bad-mouth a police officer.

Stay calm and in control of your words, body language and emotions.  Think about what you say or do before you speak or act.

Don’t get into an argument with the police.  If anything be overly nice and polite.  Sometimes being super polite will be more effective and irritate people more than getting upset with them.  Be nice!

Remember, anything you say or do can be used against you.  So shut up and say as little as possible.  You have the right to remain silent, so take advantage of this.

Keep your hands where the police can see them.

Don’t run.  Don’t touch any police officer.  They love to nail people for resisting arrest or assault.

Don’t resist even if you believe you are innocent.

Don’t complain on the scene or tell the police they’re wrong or that you’re going to file a complaint.  File the complaint later on when you can walk into the police station and talk to a supervisor.

Do not make any statements regarding the incident. The police often have tape recorders in their pockets and will try to use anything you say against you.  They do not have to read you your rights until you are arrested.  Before your arrest they are just investigating the situation and treating you as a witness.  Often times your own words are used as the best evidence against you.  They are not obligated to read you your rights until your actual arrest.  Ask for a lawyer immediately upon your arrest.

Remember officers’ badge & patrol car numbers.

Write down everything you remember ASAP.

Try to find witnesses & their names & phone numbers.

If you are injured, take photographs of the injuries as soon as possible, but make sure you seek medical attention first.

If you feel your rights have been violated, file a written complaint with police department’s internal affairs division or civilian complaint board.

IF YOU HAVE A POLICE ENCOUNTER, YOU CAN PROTECT YOURSELF.

1. What you say to the police is always important. What you say can be used against you, and it can give the police an excuse to arrest you, especially if you bad-mouth a police officer.  Remember that police often hide tape-recorders in their pockets or video cameras on their car as proof of your and their actions.  If you do something wrong they will have it recorded, if they do something wrong then the tape will go missing.

2. You don’t have to answer a police officer’s questions, but you must show your driver’s license and registration when stopped in a car. In other situations, you can’t legally be arrested for refusing to identify yourself to a police officer.  However, you can be arrested for providing fake identification.  Never give them your social security number even after being taken in and arrested.

3. You don’t have to consent to any search of yourself, your car or your house. If you DO consent to a search, it can affect your rights later in court. If the police say they have a search warrant, ASK TO SEE IT.  If they have probable cause they can search your car, but still try to contest it, make it clear that you do NOT want them to search.

4. Do not interfere with, or obstruct the police — you can be arrested for it.

IF YOU ARE STOPPED FOR QUESTIONING

1. It’s not a crime to refuse to answer questions, but refusing to answer can make the police suspicious about you. You can’t be arrested merely for refusing to identify yourself on the street.

2. Police may “pat-down” your clothing if they suspect a concealed weapon. Don’t physically resist, but make it clear that you don’t consent to any further search.

3. Ask if you are under arrest. If you are, you have a right to know why.

4. Don’t bad-mouth the police officer or run away, even if you believe what is happening is unreasonable. That could lead to your arrest.

IF YOU’RE STOPPED IN YOUR CAR

1. Upon request, show them your driver’s license, registration, and proof of insurance. In certain cases, your car can be searched without a warrant as long as the police have probable cause. To protect yourself later, you should make it clear that you do not consent to a search. It is not lawful for police to arrest you simply for refusing to consent to a search.

2. If you’re given a ticket, you should sign it; otherwise you can be arrested. You can always fight the case in court later.

3. If you’re suspected of drunk driving (DWI) and refuse to take a blood, urine or breath test, your driver’s license may be suspended.

IN YOUR HOME

1. If the police knock and ask to enter your home, you don’t have to admit them unless they have a warrant signed by a judge.

2. However, in some emergency situations (like when a person is screaming for help inside, or when the police are chasing someone) officers are allowed to enter and search your home without a warrant.

3. If you are arrested, the police can search you and the area close by. If you are in a building, “close by” usually means just the room you are in.

We all recognize the need for effective law enforcement, but we should also understand our own rights and responsibilities — especially in our relationships with the police. Everyone, including minors, has the right to courteous and respectful police treatment.

If your rights are violated, don’t try to deal with the situation at the scene. You can discuss the matter with an attorney afterwards, or file a complaint with the Internal Affairs or Civilian Complaint Board.

IF YOU’RE ARRESTED OR TAKEN TO A POLICE STATION

1. You have the right to remain silent and to talk to a lawyer before you talk to the police. Tell the police nothing except your name and address. Don’t give any explanations, excuses or stories. You can make your defense later, in court, based on what you and your lawyer decide is best.

2. Ask to see a lawyer immediately. If you can’t pay for a lawyer, you have a right to a free one, and should ask the police how the lawyer can be contacted. Don’t say anything without a lawyer.

3. Within a reasonable time after your arrest, or booking, you have the right to make a local phone call: to a lawyer, bail bondsman, a relative or any other person. The police may not listen to the call to the lawyer.

4. Sometimes you can be released without bail, or have bail lowered. Have your lawyer ask the judge about this possibility. You must be taken before the judge on the next court day after arrest.

5. Do not make any decisions in your case until you have talked with a lawyer.

6. They have to provide you with one or more (sometimes unlimited) phone calls. Use these calls to call a bails bondman or a lawyer to get you out. You can alo call a friend or family member to bail you out.