Recently the Court of Appeals reached a decision regarding the reasonable suspicion necessary to extend the scope of the stop. It is an interesting case where the Court reversed and suppressed the evidence based upon the district court's findings of fact at the trial level. The facts below are taken directly from the opinion, with analysis being my own.
Facts
A police officer was patrolling 200 South 500 West in Salt Lake City when he noticed a vehicle parked in the median of the street. The officer watched as McLeod exited the vehicle and jaywalked across the street. McLeod approached three people, who pointed out that the officer was nearby. McLeod then walked around the corner, out of the officer's sight. The officer waited for McLeod to return to his vehicle.When McLeod returned, he got into his vehicle and pulled away from the median without signaling. At that point, the officer initiated a traffic stop. The officer approached McLeod's vehicle and requested his driver license, proof of insurance, and vehicle registration. When McLeod was unable to produce those documents, the officer asked for his name and other identifying information. The officer returned to his patrol car to complete a records check while a backup officer, who had arrived on the scene, watched McLeod. During the records check, McLeod continued “moving around quite a bit in his front seat.” The backup officer told McLeod to stop moving around, and he complied. The records check confirmed that McLeod had a valid driver license and that he did not have any outstanding warrants. The officer later testified that nothing in McLeod's record “raised concerns of violence” or suggested that the officer “should detain him further on ... any other matters.”
The officer also acknowledged that, “at that point, it was either write the citation or give him a warning [for the traffic violation].” But the officer did not write McLeod a citation, give him a warning for any offense, or tell him that he was free to leave. Instead, the officer returned to McLeod's vehicle and asked whether “he had anything illegal in the car.” When McLeod said “No,” the officer asked if he could search the vehicle, and McLeod responded, “Sure.” As he prepared to step out of the car, McLeod reached underneath a pile of clothes on the passenger seat. Concerned that McLeod was reaching for a weapon, the officers ordered McLeod out of the vehicle and frisked him, which confirmed that McLeod did not have any weapons on his person. The officer then asked McLeod a second time whether there was anything illegal in the vehicle. This time, McLeod admitted that he had a syringe in a shoe inside the car. Approximately ten minutes had elapsed from the beginning of the traffic stop to the time that McLeod indicated that he had a syringe. During the ensuing search of McLeod's vehicle, the officer discovered a heroin-filled syringe and a black twist in the shoe and two more black twists in the center console. The officer believed that the twists contained heroin because, based on his training and experience, that was “the way [heroin] was packaged.”
Analysis
The state argued that McLeod's prior suspicious conduct in a high crime area in combination with his behavior during the traffic stop gave rise to reasonable suspicion to extend the scope of the stop. The state pointed specifically to McLeod's approaching three separate people and his abrupt departure around the corner once he realized police were present, McLeod's furtive movements during the traffic stop, and his presence in an area known to be high in drug-dealing activity as the factors establishing reasonable suspicion to extend the scope of the stop.
The Court pointed to the fact that the district court had not made any findings of fact regarding those instances, particularly no finding of fact that they were suspicious, and held that these actions in their totality did not constitute reasonable suspicion to extend the scope of the stop.
It seems somewhat counter-intuitive that this would not be considered reasonable suspicion, particularly when the Court held that the initial stop was fine. You can read the full opinion and analysis here: State v. McLeod, 2018 UT App 51
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