How
to Get Your ex-Spouse: The Anonymous Tip
Information
courtesy of Lawrence Taylor - DUIblog
It
has become an increasingly common practice for police to receive
anonymous phone calls about "drunk drivers" on the road.
These "tips" are typically relayed by the police dispatcher
to an officer in the field as a call to investigate a "suspected
drunk driver"; the officer is rarely told that the basis of
the information is an anonymous caller with no corroboration or
reliability. The officer then pulls the car over, fully expecting
to encounter an intoxicated person behind the wheel. And, as the
psychologists tell us, we tend to see what we expect to see.
Consider
the following from the website of the New Hampshire State Police:
The
New Hampshire State Police is committed to keeping our Roadways
and Communities safe. We welcome any tips from the public regarding
illegal activity. If you have seen any Drug activity, Drunk Driving,
or other crimes such as Domestic Violence we want to hear from
you! Any amount of information will be investigated immediately:
DWI & DUI Tips:
(Driving While Intoxicated)
Call us at 1-800-NAB-ADWI
"Any
amount of information" apparently means regardless of the nature
or source. And "will be investigated immediately" obviously
means that, based upon the anonymous tip, the car will be pulled
over and the driver interrogated and tested.
Some
courts still adhere to the constitutional standards that a tip must
be reliable before it can be the basis for a warrantless stop and
search (a field sobriety test may be considered a search, and a
field breath test definitely is); in the alternative, the officer
must be able to independently observe indications of impaired driving
before he can stop the driver. In an increasing number of states,
however, those standards, like so many other "DUI exceptions
to the Constitution", have fallen by the wayside in recent
years.
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