I got 99 problems but a bitch ain’t one
Police can’t extend traffic stop awaiting drug dog. I really expected this to go the other way. Good!
8 Responses to “I got 99 problems but a bitch ain’t one”
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April 21st, 2015 at 8:36 pm
Look for them to have “computer problems” or something else that delays the ticket writing until the dog has time to get there.
April 21st, 2015 at 11:57 pm
robert, the analysis of it over on the volokh conspiracy suggests that traffic stops are limited both by how long is necessary to complete them, _and_ how long they ought to take.
so if computer problems in the middle of issuing a ticket result in the cop keeping you on the side of the road for an hour twiddling your thumbs, they’re probably in violation.
ianal, but the volokh guys are. check ’em out
April 22nd, 2015 at 8:58 am
I think once you are stopped, at some point undefined but “pretty soon” you are “seized” (arrested) triggering that constitutional requirement for “reasonable” and for probable cause. “The drug dog might sniff drugs in your car if he were here” would not be probable cause. Good case result.
April 22nd, 2015 at 9:41 am
I wonder how often this will be followed.
April 22nd, 2015 at 12:36 pm
Alito pointed to the fact that police will just train this one away. In other words, they’ll learn to claim probable cause for the search anyway.
But that is harder today than it was yesterday. The most prominent take-away for me was that if the stop was initiated for a traffic issue, then any search subsequent to that stop that does support that initial probable cause is suspect. So a drug dog is a search tool that cannot be used to figure out why a tail-light is broken, for instance.
It also says that any delay to look for something not related to the original cause is a delay too long.
Of course, you contribute probable cause if you leave signs of activity in plain view or if the effects (smoke) are obvious to the officer after the stop commences.
Again with the training — “I smelled weed, Your Honor…”
April 22nd, 2015 at 2:53 pm
That was anticipated, and the court limited it to how long it should take to complete the traffic-related functions, or how long it actually takes, whichever is shorter.
Actually, you are seized as soon as he turns the lights on. The court rules that if he lit you up because of a traffic infraction, then he has the authority to seize you only as long as correcting that infraction takes, and not a second longer.
April 22nd, 2015 at 4:27 pm
Of course, this doesn’t apply in the Constitution-free zone within 100 miles of a border or coast.
April 23rd, 2015 at 11:55 am
great title.