Students

Chris Kalbaugh Records 'Illegal' Police Search of His Car (VIDEO)

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Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) student and libertarian Chris Kalbaugh recorded his experience at a DUI stop with a hidden camera and the video now has more than three million YouTube hits.

Kalbaugh, 21, posted the video to his own YouTube channel (PurpleHat1991), where he has numerous videos of himself covering rock songs on his guitar. His latest, however, was titled "4th of July DUI Checkpoint - Drug Dogs, Searched without Consent, while Innocent."

According to the Tennessean, who originally reported the story, libertarians have been recording interactions with police officers in an attempt to expose violations of constitutional rights.

The camera is positioned in the passenger's seat and pointed directly at the driver's side window. Kalbaugh rolled his window down a few inches for deputy sheriff A.J. Ross, who asked the student to roll it down farther. Kalbaugh refused and said it was fine where it was because he could hear the officer speaking. Ross then demanded Kalbaugh to pull over and step out of his vehicle.

While he was outside his car, Kalbaugh's video recorded a muffled conversation with Ross, but the MTSU student displayed captions on the screen to explain what was being said between the two. After some time, Ross called for a K-9 search of the car's exterior. After the dog made contact with the car (an indicator of illegal substances inside) Ross searched the car.

"I broke no laws, and I made sure to be respectful the entire time while still exercising my constitutional freedom," Kalbaugh said.

Kalbaugh said Ross pointed to a spot on the car's window - in plain sight of the camera - and told the dog to "check here," which prompted the dog to jump up and make contact with the car.

"I looked at the video later on when I got home, and I noticed that every time the officer said, 'check here,' the dog scratched my car," Kalbaugh said.

The video went viral in part to its success on Reddit, a site where users can "vote up" items on the homepage. Kalbaugh's video, uploaded Friday, shot straight to the top that day.

"We've gotten worldwide response for this," said Axl David, communications director for the Libertarian Party of Tennessee. "I watched the video when he uploaded it, and my blood boiled. I think that's why it went viral."

During the DUI stop, Ross never asked Kalbaugh if he had been drinking.

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