How long can police detain me for a traffic stop?
You ask yourself: was it reasonable for the officer to continue
the traffic stop once he issued the warning? How long is too long to conduct a routine traffic stop?
Interestingly, earlier this year the U.S. Supreme Court
examined this very issue, and its conclusion may make a significant difference
in how police perform traffic stops in Oklahoma and other states.
The above hypothetical is not just a thought experiment. It
really happened to a driver in another state. The driver argued that prolonging
the traffic stop without any basis in reasonable suspicion violated his
constitutional rights and that accordingly the drug evidence should be
suppressed. The prosecution countered that the added time – seven to eight
minutes – represented only a “de minimis” intrusion on the driver’s personal
liberty and was therefore acceptable. The trial court sided with the
prosecution, as did the Court of Appeals.
For its part, however, the US Supreme Court disagreed. In an
opinion that found support from both its conservative and liberal Justices, it
ruled that unless reasonable suspicion exists for the officer to do a drug
search, including a dog sniff, he or she cannot extend a traffic stop to search
for drugs in your car. The officer can stop you long enough to complete the
"mission" of the traffic stop – for example, to issue you a ticket or
warning for the original reason for stopping you – but then must let you go
without prolonging the stop in the hope that a dog sniff of your vehicle might
turn up something. The Court also disagreed with the prosecution’s argument
that if the officer conducting the traffic stop does it “expeditiously” that
should somehow grant additional time for a drug search.
In short, performing a dog sniff test is beyond the scope of
the mission of a vehicle stop based on a traffic violation, meaning that the
Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution cannot countenance absent grounds for
reasonable suspicion for a search.
If you are held longer than you believe is reasonable for a
traffic stop, and police use that extra time to do a drug search of your
vehicle, you should inform your defense attorney of this – it might make the
difference between being convicted of an offense or not.
For more information, visit www.OKDUI.com or http://oklahoma-criminal-defense-lawyer.com/