Re:A Woman Who Spent Six Years Fighting a Traffic Stop
by ryanhuff on Wednesday August 26, 2015 @03:56PM
(#10125589)
There are "stops" all the time without suspicion of a crime. As a passenger, I went through a sobriety check point last week, where the police officer asked for ID, and then asked the driver if he had been drinking. Every car that passed through that part of town during that hour or so did the same.
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Re:A Woman Who Spent Six Years Fighting a Traffic Stop
by photosinensis on Wednesday August 26, 2015 @04:07PM
(#10125657)
The key there is that every car that passed through that part of town during that hour or so did the same.
You can set up checkpoints as per Federal law (though your state may vary--some states have provisions against it, in which case your recourse is to state, not Federal law). However, these checkpoints must be indiscriminate: they have to stop everybody that passes them while they're active.
A cop cannot just pull a single car over to see what's going on. He has to have reason.
Re:A Woman Who Spent Six Years Fighting a Traffic Stop
by netfire on Wednesday August 26, 2015 @04:04PM
(#10125634)
True, but I believe such stops have to be for every car passing through a checkpoint or some other non-discriminatory 'random' way (every 4th car, for example).
The stop in question here was clearly unconstitutional, as the appellate court held in their decision for the defendant. Other non-DUI style checkpoint stops without reasonable suspicion of a crime would similarly be unconstitutional.