"anyone can call the police, describe an automobile and its owner and allege possession [of a weapon] with the result that the described person will be pulled over, required to identify himself, interrogated about criminal behavior, and the automobile subjected to a visual search”
How later courts described this case
- "anyone can call the police, describe an automobile and its owner and allege possession [of a weapon] with the result that the described person will be pulled over, required to identify himself, interrogated about criminal behavior, and the automobile subjected to a visual search”
- characterizing a policeman’s request to see a driver’s license as a “legitimate request” incident to a traffic stop
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
BAKES, Justice
(dissenting).
I would affirm the action of the trial court. This case appears to be one in which the rights of society to enforce its laws and to punish violators, and the rights of a citizen to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures appear to be in near equipoise. Therefore, the presumption that the trial court is correct should prevail, and the conflict should be resolved in favor of upholding the constitutional rights of the citizen to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures.