Drive carefully in Kingwood March 12, 2010
Posted by andrewlegal in Criminal law.add a comment
Police officers often find the most insignificant or benign traffic viloation to stop a person who they think may be driving while intoxicated. Sometimes they may not even have a reason other than seeing a group of teens in a car or they may rely on racial profiling to stop a car late at night. Reasonable suspicion to stop a vehilce requires that the officer has some clue or fact that he can articulate which connects the vehilce with some type of criminal activitiy, i.e. speeding, failure to maintain a single lane. Which are legitimate reasons to stop a vehicle. Other reasons are not. Such as mere suspicion of something out of place or not quite right. There must be criminal activitiy afoot for the stop to be valid and legal. Police will often stake out late night hang outs, bars, ice houses, etc and then follow the person until a traffic violation happens and then stops the carwhich on many occassions turns into an arrest for DWI.
