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GA: Further questions during stop permissible

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Further questions of a stopped motorist were valid. Hughes v. State, 2008 Ga. App. LEXIS 949 (August 22, 2008): Having de-escalated the traffic stop, police did not need any additional suspicion to ask another unrelated question or to request consent to search. "Even when officers have no basis for suspecting a particular individual, they may generally ask questions of that individual and request consent to search -- as long as the police do not convey a message that compliance with their requests is required." (Punctuation omitted.) Hampton v. State. See Salmeron v. State, supra, 280 Ga. at 736 (1). "[I]f the consent is voluntary, an officer may obtain consent to search a car following the conclusion of a valid traffic stop, without reasonable suspicion of criminal activity...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on August 24, 2008 (boomark / email).