http://www.mahaneylaw.com/files/the_law_of_traffic_stops.pdf
The core concept to any Terry based police-citizen encounter is that of objective reasonableness. More specifically, when dealing with automobiles on the highways, the analysis must be based on whether “the police have probable cause to believe that a traffic violation has occurred.”
Without the key factor of “probable cause” that a traffic violation has occurred, police action to stop a vehicle is an invalid exercise of police authority and clearly falls into the area of an unlawful detention.
F. Vehicle stop – police initiated contactEx parte Betterton, 527 So.2d 747 (Ala. 1988)
A police officer’s approach and questioning of persons seated within a parked car does not constitute a seizure and requires neither reasonable suspicion nor probable cause, and the officer may request but not order occupant to open door or roll down window. Without at least reasonable suspicion of criminal activity, officer may not order suspect out of car
Abner v. State 741 So. 2d 440 (Ala. Cr. App. 1998): Where the defendant was approached by a police officer and the officer later testified that he observed clear plastic bag sticking partly out of defendant’s right front pants pocket, and the sole reason for the subsequent search of the
defendant was the officer’s observing the plastic bag on the person of the
defendant, the Court held the police did not have probable cause to arrest him or to search him, and therefore, the subsequent seizure of controlled substances was illegal and must be suppressed. Analyzing the of Ex parte
Tucker
,
the Court held where there was no evidence of any prior illegal activity in the area; there was no evidence of any attempt to flee the police upon the officer’s approach; and the defendant made no attempt to secrete the plastic bag; taken together made the police officer’s intrusion into defendant’s pocket illegal and the subsequent seizure the product of an illegal search
While an officer may require a motorist to sit in a patrol car while the officer completes a ticket for a traffic offense, once the traffic offender signs the UTTC, the arresting officer must forthwith release him from custody. See,
§ 32 1-4(a). The officer may further detain the driver only if he has probable cause to arrest the driver for some other non-traffic offense, or as a reasonable suspicion of the driver’s involvement in some other criminal activity justifying further detention for investigatory purposes under Terry v.
Ohio. A reasonable suspicion exists only if the officer has specific, particularized, and articulable reasons indicating that the person stopped may be involved in criminal activity.