| |
Written by:
Tom Kimball, A.D.A.
Tennessee District Attorney's
General Conference (TNDAGC)
(615) 253-6734
tekimball@tndagc.org
The Tennessee Supreme Court has verified that a traffic stop can be based on an anonymous call from a citizen.
In State v Hanning, an October 20th decision, the Court affirmed the conviction of a trucker, who had been spotted driving “recklessly” by a citizen. The citizen called in a complaint and told the dispatcher the Smith Brothers black semi was pulling off I 75 at the Highway 72 exit ramp.
Sergeant Kent Russell, of the Loudon Police Department, was in a parking lot at McDonald’s about 150 yards from the top of the ramp. He got the call from dispatch and immediately drove to the exit ramp, saw a black truck tractor and trailer with its parking lights on parked in the emergency lane, facing the top of the ramp. Sergeant Russell turned on his blue lights and drove down the ramp against the flow of traffic and parked very close to the front of the truck. When he approached he saw the words “Smith” and “transport” on the door.
The traditional manner to verify an anonymous report is to meet a two prong test and show 1) the basis of the informant’s knowledge of the conveyed information and 2) the informant’s credibility. This is obviously troublesome as many citizens going down the road don’t hang around after making the call. Many times the caller will be unknown.
However, the Court ruled years ago in State v Wilhoit, 962 S.W.2d at 487 that an investigating officer’s independent corroboration on the anonymously provided information can cure deficiencies in proving reliability.
The verification of information in this case was:
1) The report of the driving incident was at or near the time of the encounter and a Court can assume the report is first hand and hence reliable. Citing State v Pulley 863 SW2d at 32.
2) The officer’s verification of the caller’s observations i.e. color and type of truck, location and direction of travel was sufficient to demonstrate the caller’s basis of knowledge.
3) The officer’s corroboration of those factors satisfied the credibility prong of the reliability inquiry.
The Court also stated, “we believe that a report of a truck and trailer being driven recklessly on the interstate poses a sufficiently high degree of threat of imminent hazard to warrant prompt investigation.
The Court also warns that this type of tip will probably not be sufficient without a high risk of imminent injury or death. The Court notes recent (2007) NHTSA statistics that show approximately 13,000 were killed by drunk drivers nationally. The Court states that the danger presented by drunk driving and the public’s interest in eliminating this problem are obvious and indisputable.(Click to view entire article)
|
|
November Training Schedule
Sobriety Checkpoints in Tennessee
November 5 & 12, 2009
Officer Spanish Survival & Communication (Basic)
November 9 - 13, 2009
TRACS/TITAN
November 18, 2009
DUI Detection and Standardized Field Sobriety Testing
November 30 -
December 2, 2009
Strategies and Tactics of Patrol Stops (STOPS) Instructor
November 30 -
December 4, 2009
|
