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GA: Stop of vehicle officers were looking for that was moving suspiciously and had wrong tag was valid and continued with RS

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Officers were on the lookout for a car like defendants, and he was seen driving in a suspicious manner, potentially the vehicle version of Terry's walking around the jewelry store. It turned out the vehicle had the tag to another vehicle on it. The stop and continued stop, including two consent searches (the first producing nothing), were valid. Aponte v. State, 2009 Ga. App. LEXIS 327 (March 20, 2009): Given the officer's knowledge that he was to be on the lookout for a car similar in description to the car Aponte was driving and his observations of Aponte's suspicious driving before the stop, we find that the officer had such a particularized and objective basis for suspecting Aponte of criminal activity. Accordingly, the stop was authorized notwithstanding the officer only learned of the information about the tag after he stopped Aponte...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on March 24, 2009 (boomark / email).