Traffic stop
A traffic stop is a temporary detention of a driver of a vehicle by police to investigate a possible crime. In constitutional law in the United States, a traffic stop is considered to be a subset of the Terry stop; the Terry standard for temporary detentions requires only reasonable suspicion that a crime has occurred or is about to occur.[1]
A stop is usually accomplished through a process known as "pulling over" the suspect's vehicle. Police vehicles (except those used by undercover personnel) traditionally have sirens, loudspeakers, and lightbars that rotate and/or flash. These devices are used by the officer to get the attention of the suspect and to signal that they are expected to move over to the shoulder and stop.
Depending upon the severity of the crime which the officer believes to have occurred, the officer may arrest the suspect, either by taking him or her to jail, or issuing a citation (called a Notice to Appear in some jurisdictions) which is essentially a traffic ticket. In some cases, officers may choose to simply issue a verbal or written warning.
Traffic stops are inherently dangerous for police officers, many of whom patrol and conduct stops alone. Officers typically take steps to protect themselves from passing traffic such as using their own car as a shield and/or approaching the suspect vehicle on the passenger side. Many states have enacted laws requiring freeway traffic approaching the police vehicle to merge over to the left, leaving an entire lane as a buffer zone for the officer. According to FBI statistics, more officers are killed or injured annually during the course of a traffic stop than at any other time excluding vehicle accidents and effecting arrests.
Controversy
Traffic stops have been heavily criticized for their use in police dragnets to check compliance with laws such as those requiring the use of seat belts or those forbidding the possession of narcotics.
In the United States, some people have objected that the tactic violates the U.S. Constitution, whose Bill of Rights contains a provision against unreasonable searches. Typically police must either have probable cause for a search or get a warrant from a judge specifying a particular individual by name or get a "John Doe warrant" with a specific description.
A recent Supreme Court ruling declared that using drug-sniffing dogs at traffic stops to search for illegal drugs "compromises no legitimate privacy interest" on the grounds that "any interest in possessing contraband cannot be deemed 'legitimate'" [1]
References
- ^ Wayne R. LaFave, "The 'routine traffic stop' from start to finish: too much 'routine,' not enough Fourth Amendment," Michigan Law Review 102, no. 8 (August 2004): 1843-1906. Professor LaFave points out that most courts have treated traffic stops like Terry stops, but the U.S. Supreme Court itself has never squarely decided the issue of whether traffic stops require probable cause or the lesser reasonable suspicion standard of Terry.
External links
- Narcotics searches in traffic stops OK - Jerry Seper, The Washington Times (January 25, 2005)
- Drive Safe, Stop Safe Traffic stop safety education program