Analysis and Application: Police Encounters with Suspects and Evidence

Unit 2

Analysis and Application:

Police Encounters with

Suspects and Evidence

CJ 227: Criminal Procedure

January 14, 2011

Burkett, Tammy Jo

1. Did Officer Smith have reasonable suspicion to make the initial stop of this vehicle?

Most Americans have been trained to trust people in authority, especially those who hold a position in the law enforcement. While many individuals believe that the police are primarily responsible for enforcing the law, they actually work for the state whose primary objective is to prosecute offenders. Any law enforcement official must have a valid reason to pull over a driver by witnessing the motorist in committing a traffic violation, having expired registration tags, or vehicles that have a broken taillight.

While Officer Smith was on routine night time patrol, when he noticed the car in front of him appeared to have a broken tail-light, which looked to be covered with colored tape. He gave directions for the driver to pull her car over to the side of the road. The question is can you pull over any reasonable vehicle on a suspicion to make an initial stop? And, the answer to this is yes, you can be pulled over whenever the police have observed any person violating a traffic law, having expired registration tags, or having a broken taillight.

A corresponding state statute states that in which authorizes a law enforcement officer to "stop any person abroad in a public place. If this officer reasonably suspects someone that is committing, has committed or is about to commit a felony, or other public offense(s) and this officer may demand of his/her name, address and an explanation of his/her actions." Taken together, both the decisional law of the state, and federal courts, and the statutory law of the state authorizes a law enforcement officer to stop, detain, question, and investigate any person "reasonably suspected" of engaging in criminal activity, including traffic violations, but subject to...