Indiana Supreme Court Issues Two Close Rulings on Traffic Stops and Reasonable Suspicion.
In two recent decisions, the Indiana Supreme Court has decided that an officer has probable cause to make a traffic stop when he or she finds that the registered owner of the vehicle may have a suspended license.
In Thomas A. Armfield v. State of Indiana, an officer made a traffic stop when he discovered that the registered owner of the vehicle was under a lifetime suspension of driving privileges, and believed that the driver matched the description of the registered owner. The Court held, “…that an officer has reasonable suspicion to initiate a Terry stop when (1) the officer knows that the registered owner of a vehicle has a suspended license and (2) the officer is unaware of any evidence or circumstances which indicate that the owner is not the driver of the vehicle.”
In Damen Holly v. State of Indiana an officer made a traffic stop of a vehicle where the registered owner of the vehicle faced a suspension, but where the driver was not in fact the registered owner of the vehicle. The officer then conducted a search incident to the stop, and recovered marijuana from the vehicle. The Court here applied the test above in Armfield and determined that the officer made a valid traffic stop under the seminal case, Terry v. Ohio, but went on to hold, however, that the officer did not possess reasonable suspicion to hold a search incident to the traffic stop, and excluded the marijuana found as a result of the search. The Court reasoned that the extent of the officer’s authority extended to merely an identification check of the driver.
In summary, a police officer DOES NOT bear the burden of demonstrating that the driver matches the description of the driver, but may make a valid stop so long as there is no reason to believe that the driver is someone other than the registered owner. After making the stop based on such reasonable suspicion, an officer IS LIMITED TO checking the driver’s identification unless further independent suspicion exists to search the vehicle.