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.