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IN: Knowledge driver has a suspended license does not justify stop of his car without knowing owner is driver

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Knowledge that the owner of a vehicle had a suspended license does not justify a stop of the vehicle. Holly v. State, 2008 Ind. App. LEXIS 1258 (June 17, 2008): We agree with Wilkinson that a police officer's knowledge that the registered owner of a vehicle lacks a valid license, by itself, is insufficient to provide the officer with reasonable suspicion sufficient to permit an investigatory stop. The central inquiry in determining whether an investigatory stop is permissible is whether the officer has a reasonable suspicion that criminal activity is afoot. Terry, 392 U.S. at 30. Although an officer needs only "a minimum level of objective justification for making a stop," the justification must be "more than an inchoate and unparticularized suspicion or hunch...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on June 23, 2008 (boomark / email).