Traffic Stops: Reasonable Suspicion vs. “Hunch:”
Making a traffic stop on a vehicle based upon an officer’s knowledge that the owner’s driver’s license has been revoked is legal, even if it is unknown for sure who is driving the vehicle, at least in the absence other information that negates the inference that the driver of that vehicle is its registered owner.
Douglas County Deputy Sheriff Mark Mehrer, in the State of Kansas, observed a 1995 Chevrolet 1500 pickup truck with Kansas plates, being driven on the public streets. Running a random radio check on the plates, Deputy Mehrer discovered that the vehicle was registered to a Charles Glover Jr. and that Mr. Glover’s driver’s license had been revoked. Assuming that it was Mr. Glover (i.e., defendant) who was driving the vehicle, but without making any attempts to verify this assumption, Deputy Mehrer made a traffic stop. No moving violations had been observed. The sole reason for the stop was the fact that the vehicle’s owner had a revoked driver’s license. As it turned out, it was in fact defendant/Glover who was driving. Charged in state court with driving as a “habitual violator,” defendant filed a motion to suppress all information obtained as a result of the traffic stop, arguing that the deputy lacked sufficient reasonable suspicion to justify the stop. The above facts were entered into evidence by stipulation between the parties, with no one actually testifying (thus no additional evidence being presented). The trial court agreed with defendant and suppressed the evidence, thus dismissing the case. The State appealed to Kansas’ intermediate appellate court, which reversed the trial court. Defendant’s appeal to the Kansas Supreme Court resulted in another reversal, Kansas’ High Court agreeing with the trial court that Deputy Mehrer’s traffic stop was illegal. (State v. Glover (July 27, 2018) 308 Kan. 590, 422 P.3d 64.) The United States Supreme Court granted certiorari.