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Civil liberties in a crisis

General information, in the style of a know-your-rights card, for stops, records, phones, and leaving an unsafe area.

General information. Use it at your own risk. Follow the law. Seek a clinician, a licensed tradesperson, or the authorities when you can. This is not legal advice. Rules differ by state and change. A lawyer, not this page, applies them to you.

Written for a household in St. Johns County and northeast Florida. This is a planning aid. Orders, zones, and shelter instructions come from the county and the state.

All guides · One-page card

Before

  • Read a know-your-rights page from the ACLU while you still have a signal. It describes, in general United States terms, staying calm at a stop, asking whether you are free to leave, and not agreeing to a search. It is not a script for your county, and it is not legal advice.
  • At a checkpoint, a stop, or a search: keep your hands visible, speak briefly, and do not argue on the roadside. You can say you wish to remain silent. If you are arrested, ask for a lawyer. Do not physically resist. This page does not discuss armed confrontation with authorities.
  • Document only when it is safe. Write the time, the place, a badge or car number if you can see one, and what was said. A passenger can often record without interfering. Do not reach suddenly for a phone. Crop out your route home and children’s faces before you share a video.
  • Turn on the phone’s full-disk encryption if the setting exists. A long passcode is harder to use against you in the moment than a fingerprint or a face. Biometrics can unlock a phone while you are holding it. Backups belong on an encrypted drive that is not the only copy in the same bag.
  • Keep a folder ready to relocate: IDs, insurance, a medicine list, some cash in small bills, and a paper map. The evacuation guide is the rest of the bag.
  • Agree who leaves, where you meet, and which out-of-area person you will call when you arrive. Crossing a state line is ordinary travel. Do not drive through a road officials have closed, or ignore an order to stay.
  • De-escalation is a quiet voice, hands you can see, and leaving. Avoid flashpoints: a rumor, a blocked intersection you do not need, or a crowd you only stopped to watch.
  • Lawful legal aid is a legal-aid office, the Legal Services Corporation finder, or the USA.gov legal-aid page. Write the path down before a crisis. A private lawyer is another lawful path if you can pay.

During

  • Hands on the wheel or in sight. Ask if you are free to go. If the answer is yes, go.
  • You may decline a search. Do not physically stop one. Saying no and grabbing an officer are not the same act.
  • If you record, hold the phone still and stay out of the way.
  • If the area becomes unsafe, use the route you already chose. Do not go back for things.

After

  • The same day, write who was there, when, where, and what was taken.
  • Copy any recording off that phone.
  • Use the legal-aid path you wrote down. Do not post the names of witnesses who did not agree.

Checklist

  • Know-your-rights page saved offline
  • Passcode on, biometrics thought through, encrypted backup elsewhere
  • IDs, medicine list, and cash in the go folder
  • Meeting place and out-of-area contact
  • Legal-aid path written down
  • A plan to leave a flashpoint instead of arguing

Download while you are online

Save these on a tablet or a USB stick. This site does not fetch them for you.

Sources

Official pages only. Open them for the full instructions.