{"id":2024,"date":"2021-07-02T13:38:21","date_gmt":"2021-07-02T13:38:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stonebusailah.com\/?p=2024"},"modified":"2021-07-02T13:38:21","modified_gmt":"2021-07-02T13:38:21","slug":"supreme-court-upholds-traffic-stop-by-deputy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/villagegreentesting.com\/StoneBusailah\/2021\/07\/02\/supreme-court-upholds-traffic-stop-by-deputy\/","title":{"rendered":"SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS TRAFFIC STOP BY DEPUTY"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Author: Robert Rabe<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Kansas Deputy Sheriff was on routine patrol when he observed a pickup truck. The Deputy ran a license plate check on the truck and discovered it belonged to Charles Glover (\u201cGlover\u201d). The Deputy also learned that Glover\u2019s driver\u2019s license had been
revoked. The Deputy pulled the truck over solely because he assumed that Glover was the driver. There was no suggestion that the Deputy observed any other traffic violation or even saw the driver before initiating the traffic stop. When the Deputy
contacted the driver, he determined it was Glover who was driving the truck. Glover was charged with driving a vehicle as a habitual violator under a Kansas statute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Glover made a motion in the District Court to suppress all evidence from the stop, which would include the observation of the Deputy that he was the driver of the vehicle. Glover claimed that the Deputy lacked a reasonable suspicion to stop him. The District Court granted the motion, but the Court of Appeals reversed, stating \u201cit was reasonable for [the Deputy] to infer that the driver was the owner of the vehicle\u201d because \u201cthere were specific and articulable facts from which the officer\u2019s commonsense inferences gave rise to a reasonable suspicion.\u201d. The Kansas Supreme Court, in turn, reversed – holding that the Deputy had violated the Fourth Amendment by stopping Glover without a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity, stating instead, he had \u201conly a hunch\u201d of criminal activity..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Supreme Court reversed the Kansas Supreme Court – holding that an officer may make a brief investigative traffic stop when he has \u201ca particularized and objective basis\u201d to suspect legal wrongdoing. This level of suspicion is less than that necessary for probable cause and \u201cdepends on the factual and practical considerations of everyday life on which reasonable and prudent men, not legal technicians, act.\u201d Courts must, therefore, permit officers to make \u201ccommonsense judgments and
inferences about human behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this case, the Deputy\u2019s commonsense inference – that the owner of a vehicle was likely the vehicle\u2019s driver – provided more than reasonable suspicion to initiate the stop. The Court noted such an inference is not made unreasonable merely because a vehicle\u2019s driver is not always its registered owner or because Glover had a revoked license. [As if drivers with suspended or revoked licenses rarely continue to drive.] Glover\u2019s primary counter-argument was not persuasive. He argued that the Deputy\u2019s inference was unreasonable because it was not grounded in his law enforcement training or experience. The Court
stated such a requirement is inconsistent with the Fourth Amendment because it would prevent an officer from relying on common sense obtained outside of work duties. The reasonable suspicion standard \u201ctakes into account the totality of the circumstances.\u201d While the presence of additional facts may have dispelled a reasonable suspicion, the Deputy in this case \u201cpossessed no exculpatory information – let alone sufficient information to rebut the reasonable inference that Glover was
driving his own truck\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With modern technology, officers can quickly determine the registered owner of a vehicle and that person\u2019s license status. The Supreme Court has now ruled that it is a reasonable \u201ccommon-sense\u201d inference the registered owner of a motor vehicle is the driver of that vehicle. One must not forget, however, additional facts may refute a presumption. For example, if the registered owner of a vehicle is known to be an older male, initiating a traffic stop on a young man, or a female, would negate any reasonable suspicion to do so based on the owner\u2019s driving status. In other words, as the Supreme Court might say, rely on your common sense<\/em>, not just a \u201ccommon-sense\u201d inference.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stay Safe and Healthy!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robert Rabe is Stone Busailah, LLP\u2019s writs and appeals specialist. His 41 years practicing law include 16 years as a Barrister, Supreme Court of England and Wales, practicing in London, England.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Author: Robert Rabe A Kansas Deputy Sheriff was on routine patrol when he observed a pickup truck. The Deputy ran a license plate check on the truck and discovered it belonged to Charles Glover (\u201cGlover\u201d). The Deputy also learned that Glover\u2019s driver\u2019s license had beenrevoked. The Deputy pulled the truck over solely because he assumed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2025,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-traffic-stops"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/villagegreentesting.com\/StoneBusailah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/villagegreentesting.com\/StoneBusailah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/villagegreentesting.com\/StoneBusailah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/villagegreentesting.com\/StoneBusailah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/villagegreentesting.com\/StoneBusailah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/villagegreentesting.com\/StoneBusailah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/villagegreentesting.com\/StoneBusailah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/villagegreentesting.com\/StoneBusailah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/villagegreentesting.com\/StoneBusailah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/villagegreentesting.com\/StoneBusailah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}