Arrest, Search, Seizure, Warrant Search and seizure prolonged traffic stop

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matt245

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Last night I was pulled over by an officer because my tab on my license plate tab was partially ripped off. 75% of the required tab was still legible and attached to the plate. The officer asked for my registration papers. I gave them it to him. He checked the papers the plate and said that everything was satisfactory. This entire process from when he came to my window to being satisfied with the registration took about 25 seconds.

He then asked for my license and insurance. I gave both to him. Twenty minutes later he wrote me a ticket for driving w/o insurance (the card had expired).

Anyone have any thoughts on whether the request for insurance and driver's license was an illegal search under the fourth amendment. Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
 
A police officer has the right to ask for your license, registration and insurance if you are stopped in connection with a traffic law violation. That is what happened here.

There was no 4th amendment "search" here at all. The officer gave you the ticket for the traffic infraction that was the probable cause for the whole stop. So you have not been charged for anything that was only detected after the stop, so again, there are no 4th amendment search issues here.

The only thing you might want to assert is that the traffic stop took too long and you would want to assert an unlawful seizure. But even there you would be probably out of luck, first of all even an unlawful arrest would not be a defense to the infraction, that is you would have to pay the ticket anyway, and on the other hand courts have often found longer stops reasonable, as long as the cop could explain why it took so long.

You might want to read this case here which sums it up nicely: http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=ks&vol=ctapp/2003/20030613/&invol=89430
 
Thanks for the reply.

The officer had probable cause to pull me over because he suspected that I violated the vehicle registration law--my license plate sticker tab was slightly torn. Once he approached my vehicle he realized that only a piece of the sticker was missing. That combined with me promptly providing the proof of registration should have destroyed the probable cause that he had when he made the stop. All he asked for initially was the registration.

After he aknowledged that there was no violation with my registration he asked me for my license and insurance proof. I see it as though he lost his probable cause once he realized that my registration was in order. Can probable cause be destroyed? Can he continue to "fish" after he realizes his probable cause was merely a reasonable mistake?

Thanks for your thoughts!
 
No, you got that wrong. The officer gave you a ticket, so he does think you have committed a violation. And again, the officer has the right to ask you for all of the documents and to run a computer check (that is what he probably did during all the time). Because he thought you had committed a violation (and he still thinks this, because he gave you the ticket) he had probable cause to stop you.

I am not sure where you want to go with this. What you can do is fight the ticket on the substance, but not on procedure.
 
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