[Jaden]

2804. A member of the California Highway Patrol upon reasonable
belief that any vehicle is being operated in violation of any
provisions of this code or is in such unsafe condition as to endanger
any person, may require the driver of the vehicle to stop and submit
to an inspection of the vehicle, and its equipment, license plates,
and registration card.

2806. Any regularly employed and salaried police officer or deputy
sheriff, or any reserve police officer or reserve deputy sheriff
listed in Section 830.6 of the Penal Code, having reasonable cause to
believe that any vehicle or combination of vehicles is not equipped
as required by this code or is in any unsafe condition as to endanger
any person, may require the driver to stop and submit the vehicle or
combination of vehicles to an inspection and those tests as may be
appropriate to determine the safety to persons and compliance with
the code.

Yep, not at the whim of the officer... They need to have resaonable suspicion that the vehicle is not in compliance.

This should require NO ACTION on the part of the person being pulled over. If they have reasonable suspicion to conduct an inspection, they can conduct an inspection.

If they ask me to pop the hood, I would say "Officer, I do not consent to an inspection, if you have reasonable suspicion to believe that I am not in compliance, then you should not need my consent, but know that I will file a complaint after you find nothing not in compliance and may file a lawsuit against you, your department and the county or state as is applicable for which you will have to provide evidence for your reasonable suspicion per VC 2804 and 2806".

Jaden

p.s. The officers KNOW this. The officer that inspected my vehicle asked me to TURN my steering wheel to the other direction so that he could hear my exhaust when I turned the engine on. He knew he couldn't request that I turn my engine on and rev it for him because he had no reasonable suspicion. The only reason he could ask me to turn my wheels is that my tires were a little too worn on the inside because of camber so he had reasonable suspicion to inspect the tires. None of this changes the fact that it is ridiculous that an officer can arbitrarily decide to write you up for a violation that isn't a violation based on nothing but his whim and in the case of 27150A, as it stands that is exactly what happens.

p.p.s I can't even read any more in that thread, some of those officers attitudes is what gives police bad names. I mean one posted that an officer can't know that you don't have a weapon unless he pats you down...duh...he's not supposed to know whether you have a weapon and he's not supposed to search you unless he has reasonable suspicion that not only that you have a weapon, but that the having a weapon is in violation of law.

Even seeing a gun in your belt is not justification for a search as he has no reasonable suspicion that the possession of the gun is in violation of law. This is exactly what I'm talking about. So many people have consented to so many violations of their liberties that both citizens and officers don't know what is legitimate and not any more.