The differences between a personal search, a vehicle search, and a search of your home depend on the situation in which you find yourself. They also depend on whether the search occurs before or after you are arrested. As such, it is crucial to be aware of your rights regarding search and seizure in Virginia so that you have the opportunity to protect yourself from any criminal investigations and charges.
Before you are arrested, an officer is simply attempting to detain you or find information which will lead them to evidence to use against you. If they do not have a legal basis for the search, they will not be able to simply search you without your consent. If an officer stops you on the street and has what is called reasonable suspicion, at that point an officer is allowed to do what is called a patdown search, which is ostensibly for safety purposes. They can and will pat you down to feel whether or not you have something on your person which could potentially cause a safety issue for the officer.
During the course of their patdown, if they feel something which they are able to say based on their experience is contraband, they will pull it out of your pocket. They might ask you if you have anything in your pocket, but you do not have to tell them that you do. You also do not have to give them anything in your pocket. In that pat-down search, they will try to feel an item in your pocket and determine whether or not it is contraband, and if they feel it is, at that point they will be able to pull it out.
If your vehicle is pulled over, an officer might ask you if they can look around or search your vehicle, and you should absolutely say no. Unless they have a warrant to search your vehicle, an officer cannot just search it in the course of a routine traffic stop. The two exceptions are if they see or smell something in the car which gives them probable cause to search, or they are able to somehow arrest you or detain you for something else.
Therefore, if an officer looks into your vehicle and sees something they believe is contraband based on their experience, and they have probable cause to believe that you are committing a crime by having that item in your car, then they can search the car and look for that evidence. The same is true if a police officer stops you and smells some kind of illegal substance like marijuana, it gives them probable cause to go ahead and search your vehicle to look for this illegal substance.
Police officers most likely will not tell you that you have the right to refuse a search. That is because it is not in their best interest to give you a chance to decline the search. What you have to remember is police officers are after information and evidence that someone committed a crime, and that is what they are looking for when they want to search you. If police officers tell you that you have the right to refuse, then they will be giving you a chance to refuse the search. They do not want to do that, so they probably will not give you this information.
What you should always do is ask the officers if you are under arrest and whether they have a warrant. If you are not under arrest and they do not have a warrant to search you, you should tell them that you do not consent to a search.