text: do police officers in california have the right to take your pulse without your permission?   bet i know what happened to you.  if what you want to know is if police officers have the right to gather evidence, yes...they do.  an abnormal pulse (high or low) can be evidence of drug or alcohol use (more likely drug) and as such, the police are allowed to obtain that information.  you don't have the right to remain silent and not have your pulse taken because your speech isn't the issue...it's the physical state of your body that's being "questioned" and your body does not have the right to remain silent, only your mouth.  very educated and reasonable people are likely to disagree with me on this.  doesn't make them right or wrong, just makes them defense lawyers most likely.  there is no specific statute that says you must submit to a pulse measurement (like there is for dui, where there's a specific statute that requires you to submit to a chemical test).  however, the police do have a right to gather evidence.  i'm sorry that you were left having to ask this question.  sounds like it was not explained to you very well (did you ask?).  you're welcome to write me at my user name at yahoo.com if you have more questions about this (and really, it's not like i'm going to try and find out who/where you are...worst case, somebody got arrested for being high and that's a dime a dozen...i would be more interested in you getting the answers you're looking for and maybe some information about where to find out more).