Court: Cops can't stop drivers based on the color of their cars [FL]

Yahoo! Autos ^ | 7/9/14 | Justin Hyde

[Slings and Arrows]

"Probable cause" has long been one of those terms that made the jump from legal jargon to household term, especially with regards to drivers who get pulled over. The struggle over what that allows on American roads — and what it doesn't — took a new turn last week with a Florida ruling that threw out a conviction stemming from a police officer who found something wrong with the color of a car.

In 2010, a deputy in Florida's Escambia County saw one Kendrick Van Teamer drive by in a bright green Chevrolet. The deputy ran his plates, and found the registration matched a blue Chevrolet. There were no warrants out for Teamer, no reports of stolen vehicles and no pending crimes that involved either a blue or green Chevy. Teamer also wasn't violating any traffic laws.

But the deputy pulled Teamer over anyway, simply because of the mismatch of the car's color. Teamer said the car had been recently painted, which was true. It also contained small amounts of cocaine, marijuana and $1,100 in cash. Teamer was charged with drug trafficking and possession, convicted and sentenced to six years in prison.

Teamer appealed, and last week as noted by The Newspaper, the Florida Supreme Court ordered him freed on a 5-2 decision, upholding a lower appeals court ruling that the deputy was wrong to stop Teamer simply becuase the color of his car didn't match its registration. The court noted that in numerous U.S. Supreme Court rulings, justices have found police can't pull someone over for everday behavior that's not linked to a crime, saying Teamer's stop was not different from those triggered by the race of the driver:

[ImNotLying]

A law was passed a few years ago that made it illegal for anyone to run a random check on any individual or tag unless they had a legitimate reason to do so. Can’t remember the exact date or title of the law. Prior to that almost anyone in any agency that had access to the NCIC data base could run a check on anybody. I could call friends in law enforcement and say, hey look up tag so and so and see who it is. People were looking up vanity tags with names like Shaq or Bionce to see where they lived for example. This particular cop had no reason in the first place to run a license check other that an apparent paint job. The court said a paint job was not sufficient reason to access NCIC data base. The new devices on police cars today that scan license plates automatically have been approved by the court for specific information such as stolen car etc. This police car did not have that device. I wish this police officer had gotten the druggie off the street for good, but he learned a lesson of what is required by law in a court proceeding.

[NorthMountain]

You're apparently too dense to see it, so I'll rub your nose in it.

The courts have a long and sordid history of interpreting the constitution in ways that defy common sense, logic, and plain reading. They ignore obvious limits on government power and invent imaginary rights to suit their whim. You say "the courts say it's legal" and I say "So what? The courts pull all kinds of crap out of their butts, and call it law." A better question for citizens of a Republic would be: "Is this really where we want to go? Is constant government surveillance of the citizens what this country is all about?"

I say "no". The courts AND the legislators are FOS and need desperately to be reined in.

Where do you stand, copper?

[Cboldt]

I agree. Just to explain, I was looking at “justified” from a legal point of view, not a moral one. The state gets away with all sorts of moral error but there is no remedy in law.

[Cboldt]

The court woild have ruled the other way if the perp had been caught with more drugs, if that’s any consolation.

[IronJack]

I think the point is that running plates because the color of the car is “wrong” SHOULD be illegal.

[jiggyboy]

How does the law justify simply “running the plates” of any car you happen to see in the first place? Just because you can?

[NorthMountain]

Someone still has to mine it.

Most of that 'mining' is automated. No human decides what ads Google (etc.) will display on your browser. If the data are there, the authorities need only to ask for it, for any reason or none at all, and have it at their fingertips. It could even be offered up without asking ... a terminal could display full registration data on every car that passes by, for example, as their plates are captured by that trunk mounted camera. Just for example.

Is this America? Is this what we're all about, here? Every last one of us being constantly monitored, filed, searched, stuck in databases by the omnipresent State?

We've made a wrong turn, IMO.

[Slings and Arrows]

I haven’t the foggiest idea.

[NorthMountain]

The cop didn’t run the plates because the car was wrong color.

He ran the plates for reasons unspecified, and THEN found out that the color didn’t match the registration.

Why did he run the plate in the first place? Anybody know?

[gimme1ibertee]

Agreed. But, it makes me wonder: whatever happened to “search incident to arrest”?
Let’s say the guy was pulled over for an amber tag light instead of a clear one. The cop notices some flakes of pot on the front seat. He orders the driver out, finds a joint in the ashtray,and,upon searching further, finds a pound of reefer,a wad of cash,a scale and some baggies.So....this person can’t be charged with possession with intent to distribute? That’s insane!

[jiggyboy]

Thanks media for announcing to all the drug traffickers how to get the drugs past the cops to the schools.

Flesh that out a little for me. I assume we're basing it on the car having been repainted. Are you thinking that a drug trafficker should paint his car because it's more likely that he will be pulled over by a bored and overzealous cop, resulting in an illegal search, arrest, trial, and possibly jail, which, some number of years and thousands of dollars later, will be overturned, maybe, by a state court, at which point he cackles all the way back his lair?

[reed13k]

And that’s because our justice system is based on alpha error rather than beta error. We prefer to ensure the guilty man go free on occasion than the innocent man be convicted inappropriately. As it should be in a free country.... now if we could just reduce the number of regulations and laws so we aren’t all guilty 2-3 times a day.

[Beagle8U]

“This particular cop had no reason in the first place to run a license check other that an apparent paint job.”

If random plate checks are illegal then about every police dept in America is guilty.

If the checks are legal, the stop for the non matching plate is also legal.

I don’t see how the court could rule the traffic cameras legal and turn around and say it is illegal to act on the information?

[tacticalogic]

No, but you would have to stop it first if not for license plates.

Absent any other evidence, does the color of the car not matching the description on the plate registration mean that that either the car or the plate is probably stolen?

[KEVLAR]

I disagree.

Often time the information they have is wildly inaccurate.

A previous arrest would show up even if you had your day in court and were found not guilty. This will color the officers attitude.

In Illinois having a Firearm Owners ID card would often lead to additional scrutiny.

[jiggyboy]

In your example, the cop has an actual reason to pull the guy over. Nobody here would argue otherwise.

[Beagle8U]

Play with your strawman outside, run along while adults debate the case.

[nathanbedford]

It seems that The Court has been inexorably limiting the scope of the old doctrine of a reasonable search incident to a valid arrest.

Relative to the example you give, one point of view is to observe that the police, having arrested the driver, now take possession of the automobile thus foreclosing any possibility of contamination or loss of evidence and ensuring that they have ample time to secure a warrant.

The other point of view, of course, is to observe that that's not human nature, it is almost a reflex to continue the search under those circumstances. The reply to that, no doubt, is that cops should be trained to delay the search until the warrant is obtained of four an impounded auto.

I'm not too exercised about these situations because proper training should be able to limit freeing criminals to a reasonable minimum. I don't like the expense and the bureaucratic tangle but it is not quite the same as wholesale release of guilty felons.

Perhaps my judgment is clouded by a reflexive despair over the course of the war on drugs, its futility and the terrible damage it is doing to our criminal justice system and our society.

[Beagle8U]

A non matching plate would be probable cause to make a stop to check IMO.

[NorthMountain]

IOW, I'm right, you know I'm right, and you can't force yourself to admit it ... so you are reduced to personal insults.

Try again, if you dare.