can a male officer physically search a female they have stopped?

[hmong]

We got pulled over for no reason and searched... Officers lame excuse was that we could of stopped at the yellow light which was turning red. Obviously the officer just wanted to stop us because he was being a jackass, but then he ask my girlfriend to step out of the car and he searched her for no reason. Is that legal?

[crassus]

Did he actually say that he just wants to feel her? It's legal if he has a legitimate reason for it. What did he use for his reason?

[loyalknight10]

Unfortunately such irritating things can't be illegal. I too experienced this a lot of times. However if it is beyond a point we can take this issue with legal authorities and can get the cop in real trouble.

[hmong]

We were leaving the bar at about 1:15am, I drank but my girlfriend didn't. She was the driver, we decided to go to taco bell. About a mile past the bar, we get pulled over, the excuse for us getting stopped is that we "could have stopped at a yellow light turning red, but we didn't". So we pull over and when the cop approaches the car, right away he says my girlfriends name like he was intending to stop us, "hey cindy.." he says. Tells us why he pulled us over and says he was gonna give her a warning for that. He grabs her license goes back to his car then comes back and says, can you step out of the car because he said he smelt alcohol, and wanted to give her a breathalyzer. So she did, while i sat in the car. So at this moment we didn't do anything wrong, and she's going to show the officer she wasn't drinking. She was sober! Then after a bit, an officer comes and knocks on my door and ask me to step out. And he puts me in a squad car. He says he found a baggy with dope in it in her fifth pocket. (Please don't judge on what she had on her) I'm wondering if it is legal for a male officer to physically pat down and reach into a females pocket for no reason at all!?!? Remember the reason we got pulled over was for crossing a intersection while the light was yellow turning red.
By the way they handcuffed her and took her, and they were gonna tow the car but i told them that i was able to drive, so they gave me a breathalyzer and i blew a .09, .01 over the legal limit and they let me drive home.

[jimbo]

I think that in many states a female officer needs to be called to the scene so that they can search the female in question.