Opinion ID: 2263194
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Extended Length of the Traffic Stop

Text: The case sub judice tests what is a reasonable extension of the length of a traffic stop in order for police to receive radio verification of the validity of an individual's driver's license, vehicle registration, and warrants check. It is petitioner's contention that the length of the detention of the driver, and thus himself, in the case at bar was unreasonable and therefore the K-9 search was a violation of his constitutional rights. We find that under the particular facts and circumstances of this case, the initial traffic stop was still ongoing at the time of the K-9 scan and resultant alert. The facts indicate that Sergeant Hughes exercised reasonable diligence under the circumstances, in obtaining the license, registration, and warrant information from MILES and NCIC and there was no evidence extant that the stop was extended beyond the time necessary to reasonably complete all of the actions associated with resolving the initial purpose of the stop. The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. [16] The Fourth Amendment protects against unreasonable searches and seizures. See Whren v. United States, 517 U.S. 806, 809-10, 116 S.Ct. 1769, 1772, 135 L.Ed.2d 89 (1996); United States v. Mendenhall, 446 U.S. 544, 550-51, 100 S.Ct. 1870, 1875, 64 L.Ed.2d 497, reh'g denied, 448 U.S. 908, 100 S.Ct. 3051, 65 L.Ed.2d 1138 (1980). It is evident that the stopping of a vehicle and the detention of its occupants is a seizure and thus implicates the Fourth Amendment. See Whren, 517 U.S. at 809-10, 116 S.Ct. at 1772, 135 L.Ed.2d 89; United States v. Sharpe, 470 U.S. 675, 682, 105 S.Ct. 1568, 1573, 84 L.Ed.2d 605 (1985). An automobile stop is thus subject to the constitutional imperative that it not be `unreasonable' under the circumstances. As a general matter, the decision to stop an automobile is reasonable where the police have probable cause to believe that a traffic violation has occurred. Whren, 517 U.S. at 810, 116 S.Ct. at 1772, 135 L.Ed.2d 89 (citing Delaware v. Prouse, 440 U.S. 648, 653, 99 S.Ct. 1391, 1395, 59 L.Ed.2d 660 (1979); Pennsylvania v. Mimms, 434 U.S. 106, 109, 98 S.Ct. 330, 332, 54 L.Ed.2d 331 (1977) ( per curiam )). However, the detention of a person must be temporary and last no longer than is necessary to effectuate the purpose of the stop. Florida v. Royer, 460 U.S. 491, 500, 103 S.Ct. 1319, 1325, 75 L.Ed.2d 229 (1983) (plurality opinion). We stated in Wilkes v. State, 364 Md. 554, 774 A.2d 420 (2001): In determining whether there has been a violation of the Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches and seizures, the Supreme Court has stated: The touchstone of our analysis under the Fourth Amendment is always `the reasonableness in all the circumstances of the particular governmental invasion of a citizen's personal security.' Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 19, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1878, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968). Reasonableness, of course, depends `on a balance between the public interest and the individual's right to personal security free from arbitrary interference by law officers.' United States v. Brignoni-Ponce, 422 U.S. 873, 878, 95 S.Ct. 2574, 45 L.Ed.2d 607 (1975). Pennsylvania v. Mimms, 434 U.S. 106, 108-09, 98 S.Ct. 330, 332, 54 L.Ed.2d 331 (1977); see also Ohio v. Robinette, 519 U.S. 33, 39, 117 S.Ct. 417, 421, 136 L.Ed.2d 347 (1996); Stokes [ v. State ], 362 Md. [407,] 412-13 n. 7, 765 A.2d [612,] 615 n. 7 [(2001)]. Wilkes, 364 Md. at 571, 774 A.2d at 430. It is undisputed that Sergeant Hughes had probable cause to stop Ms. Malone's vehicle and that there was a valid initial traffic stop. Pursuant to § 13-411 of the Transportation Article, Sergeant Hughes conducted a lawful stop of Ms. Malone's green Chevrolet Malibu, in which petitioner was the front seat passenger, after observing that the car's license plate was obscured by a plastic license plate cover. Petitioner does not challenge the stop itself [17] or even the Carroll [18] search of the vehicle made after the K-9 alerted to the presence of narcotics. [19] Petitioner argues that the constitutional violation was the unreasonably prolonged detention or seizure of [petitioner], a passenger in a car that was stopped because a registration plate cover was displayed on the vehicle's rear tag. Petitioner contends that the cocaine recovered from the vehicle was the fruit[] of the unlawful detention and therefore must be suppressed. See Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 488, 83 S.Ct. 407, 9 L.Ed.2d 441 (1963). Petitioner's argument boils down to two points: (1) Ms. Malone and petitioner were detained longer than necessary for the issuance of a warning or citation for having the plastic license plate cover and (2) the continued detention was not justified by the circumstances that took place over the brief period of time that it should have taken to determine the status of the driver, passenger and vehicle. We find that Ms. Malone and petitioner were not detained longer than necessary under the circumstances present in the case sub judice. Because petitioner does not dispute the legitimacy of the stop, we find that the initial seizure was justified and turn to address whether the traffic stop was longer than is necessary to effectuate the purpose of the stop. See Royer, 460 U.S. at 500, 103 S.Ct. at 1325, 75 L.Ed.2d 229. In our determination of whether petitioner's Fourth Amendment rights have been violated, we must first establish when the initial legitimate stop ends. As we discussed in State v. Green, 375 Md. 595, 826 A.2d 486 (2003): Judge Raker, speaking for this Court, has drawn a bright line, demarcating the point at which an ordinary traffic stop ends: In sum, the officer's purpose in an ordinary traffic stop is to enforce the laws of the roadway, and ordinarily to investigate the manner of driving with the intent to issue a citation or warning. Once the purpose of that stop has been fulfilled, the continued detention of the car and the occupants amounts to a second detention. See Royer, 460 U.S. at 500, 103 S.Ct. at 1325-26. Thus, once the underlying basis for the initial traffic stop has concluded, a police-driver encounter which implicates the Fourth Amendment is constitutionally permissible only if either (1) the driver consents to the continuing intrusion or (2) the officer has, at a minimum, a reasonable, articulable suspicion that criminal activity is afoot. United States v. Sandoval, 29 F.3d 537, 540 (10th Cir. 1994). 355 Md. at 372, 735 A.2d at 499. This language clarifies that, after a traffic citation or warning has been issued, the Fourth Amendment allows only (1) consensual encounters between the police officer and driver, and (2) detentions supported by, at least, reasonable articulable suspicion. Green, 375 Md. at 610, 826 A.2d at 495. In the case sub judice, the initial justified detention was not concluded at the time the K-9 dog alerted to the presence of narcotics in the car. Due to the systems being down at the College Park barrack and then the delayed response of the Waterloo barrack, Sergeant Hughes had not been able to obtain information to verify the validity of the licenses, Ms. Malone's registration, or conduct a warrant check on Ms. Malone or petitioner. The initial purpose of the stop had not been fulfilled. Therefore, petitioner's only available argument is that the length of the detention was not reasonable, and that the resulting search of the vehicle should be found to be a violation of his Fourth Amendment rights. Petitioner acknowledges that the length of a traffic stop, per se, is not dispositive of whether the traffic stop was unreasonable, but it is a factor to consider with all of the other circumstances. As we have discussed previously in Wilkes: The Supreme Court has expressly rejected imposing rigid time limitations on traffic stops. See [ United States v. ] Sharpe , 470 U.S. [675,] 685, 105 S.Ct. [1568,] 1575, 84 L.Ed.2d 605 [(1985)]. In that case, the Supreme Court noted that as `[m]uch as a bright-line rule would be desirable, in evaluating whether an investigative detention is unreasonable, common sense and ordinary human experience must govern over rigid criteria.' Id. The Supreme Court continued: In assessing whether a detention is too long in duration to be justified as an investigative stop, we consider it appropriate to examine whether the police diligently pursued a means of investigation that was likely to confirm or dispel their suspicions quickly, during which time it was necessary to detain the defendant. A court making this assessment should take care to consider whether the police are acting in a swiftly developing situation, and in such cases the court should not indulge in unrealistic second-guessing. A creative judge engaged in post hoc evaluation of police conduct can almost always imagine some alternative means by which the objectives of the police might have been accomplished. But `[t]he fact that the protection of the public might, in the abstract, have been accomplished by less intrusive means does not, itself, render the search unreasonable.' The question is not simply whether some other alternative was available, but whether the police acted unreasonably in failing to recognize or to pursue it. Id. at 686-87, 105 S.Ct. at 1575-76, 84 L.Ed.2d 605 (citations omitted). Wilkes, 364 Md. at 576-77, 774 A.2d at 433. We will not simply determine that a stop was unreasonable due to the length of time over which it occurred. Based on Sharpe, it is necessary to revisit the facts, as expounded upon supra, in order to determine whether Sergeant Hughes diligently pursued the retrieval of the license, registration, and warrant information from MILES and NCIC. On November 19, 2003, at 10:58 a.m. Sergeant Hughes pulled the vehicle over. At this time Sergeant Hughes called in the stop to the College Park barrack and was notified that the MILES and NCIC information systems were down but was not given an indication of when they would be back up. At 10:59 a.m. he approached the vehicle, notified the driver, Ms. Malone, of the infraction, spoke with her for a few minutes and obtained her driver's license and registration for the vehicle as well as the passenger's (petitioner) driver's license. At 11:02 a.m. Sergeant Hughes returned to his patrol vehicle, called for a K-9 handler, examined the documents and wrote out a warning for the plastic license plate cover. When he was finished, at 11:08 a.m., he called back the College Park barrack to see if the system was back up. He was informed that it was still down, but that he should contact another barrack because the system failure was limited to College Park. Sergeant Hughes then called the Waterloo barrack, located approximately three miles north of the location of the stop. It was 11:09 a.m. and there was apparently too much background noise or interference for the dispatcher to hear. Sergeant Hughes then, immediately, at 11:10 a.m. used his cell phone to call back the dispatcher. He provided the dispatcher with all of the necessary information to run the check and the dispatcher told him that he would call him back over the air once he received the information. Sergeant Hughes then got out of his vehicle, walked up to Ms. Malone's car and informed her that he was waiting on the results of a license and warrant check. It is at this point in the stop that petitioner argues that the length of the detention has become unreasonable. Petitioner acknowledges that police may conduct checks of driver's licenses, vehicle registrations and warrant statuses during a traffic stop. . . . [20] However, petitioner contends that such authority is premised on the fact that this information can be accessed quickly. As the Court in Wilkes discussed: Such holdings make sense as modern technology has availed police officers with the ability to quickly access relevant information without unnecessarily prolonging the duration of the stop or unreasonably increasing the level of intrusion. See United States v. Gonzalez, 763 F.2d 1127, 1130 (10th Cir.1985) (`The police officer had a car radio and contact thereby with dispatchers who had instant access to the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) computer records that could quickly resolve, with reasonable certainty, whether there were warrants outstanding against the driver and whether the car had been reported stolen.'). Wilkes, 364 Md. at 579, 774 A.2d at 435. In the case sub judice, petitioner argues that the detention continued beyond a period during which the police would normally have received information concerning the driver's licenses, registration, and warrant check. Sergeant Hughes didn't hear back from either dispatcher until 11:19 a.m. At that time the College Park dispatcher called to inform him that the K-9 handler was lost and could not find the stop location. Sergeant Hughes then called the Waterloo barrack again to see if the license check and warrant information had come back, and was told to stand by. At 11:23 a.m., tired of waiting for a response, Sergeant Hughes called back the Waterloo barrack using his cell phone and spoke to the duty officer, who told him that they were very busy. At 11:26 a.m. the K-9 handler arrived and proceeded to conduct a scan on Ms. Malone's vehicle. At 11:27 a.m. the Waterloo barrack called Sergeant Hughes back and said that petitioner had an extensive criminal background, [21] however, the dispatcher did not provide any outstanding warrant information nor did he provide any information on the driver, Ms. Malone. At 11:30 a.m. the K-9 dog alerted to the presence of narcotics in Ms. Malone's vehicle. We addressed similar factual circumstances in Wilkes. In Wilkes, a vehicle was stopped for exceeding the speed limit. While the police were awaiting the results of a records check, a K-9 dog arrived, scanned the vehicle and alerted to the presence of narcotics. We upheld the search. In that case, however, there was no argument that the retrieval of the records check took an unreasonable amount of time. The K-9 unit had arrived within five minutes of the stop. Petitioner draws our attention to a footnote in Wilkes, in which we stated: Under the facts of the instant case, the K-9 scan, at the least, occurred while the troopers were waiting for conclusive warrant information, and that period of time, itself, was not unreasonably long. An overly long period of waiting for warrant information may well create problems relating to Fourth Amendment compliance. 364 Md. at 583-84 n. 22, 774 A.2d at 438 n. 22. While it is true that an overly long detention while waiting for warrant information may create Fourth Amendment problems, we do not find the period of detention in the case sub judice, based upon the particular facts and circumstances, to be such an occasion. As the Court in Wilkes also stated: If the K-9 scan was conducted prior to [the Trooper] receiving any information from the [barrack] concerning the computer check, then, as we have indicated. . . the initial purpose for the traffic stop was not yet fulfilled and the K-9 scan was justified without additional independent reasonable articulable suspicion. 364 Md. at 583, 774 A.2d at 437. It is evident in the case at bar that the K-9 scan was being conducted prior to Sergeant Hughes receiving any information concerning the records check and thus, the initial purpose for the stop was not yet fulfilled. In Wilkes, we discussed Pryor v. State, 122 Md.App. 671, 716 A.2d 338, cert. denied, 352 Md. 312, 721 A.2d 990 (1998), a case in which a driver was stopped for exceeding the speed limit. The driver was then detained and made to wait for a K-9 unit to arrive. Under the circumstances presented in Pryor, the Court of Special Appeals suppressed the evidence obtained from the search, finding that a person stopped for a minor traffic violation cannot be detained at the scene of the stop longer than it takesor reasonably should taketo issue a citation for the traffic violation that the motorist committed. 122 Md.App. at 674-75, 716 A.2d at 340. However, as we pointed out in Wilkes: that court also recognized that there may be reasons that justify the extension of a traffic stop: `[t]his is not a case in which an extended detention of the motorist could be justified by the need to administer a field sobriety test or by technical difficulties in determining the status of the motorist's license or the ownership of the vehicle that has been stopped. ' 364 Md. at 575 n. 16, 774 A.2d at 433 n. 16 (citing Pryor, 122 Md.App. at 681-82 n. 7, 716 A.2d at 343 n. 7). The extended period of detention in the case sub judice was caused by technical difficulties in determining the status of Ms. Malone's and petitioner's driver's licenses, the registration of the vehicle, and warrant checks. There is no evidence that Sergeant Hughes was anything but diligent in his attempts at obtaining that information. It is established that a records check of a driver's license, registration, and outstanding warrants is an integral part of any traffic stop. See Prouse, 440 U.S. at 663, 99 S.Ct. at 1401, 59 L.Ed.2d 660; Wilkes, 364 Md. at 578, 774 A.2d at 434. As Judge Davis, writing for the Court of Special Appeals, expressed in the opinion below: It is beyond cavil . . . that the law contemplates a record check for outstanding warrants or other infractions as part of the initial stop for the traffic violation. The Court of Appeals has unequivocally confirmed the principle that `[i]t is clear that an officer conducting a routine traffic stop may request a driver's license, vehicle registration, and insurance papers, run a computer check, and issue a citation or warning.' Nathan [ v. State ], 370 Md. [648,] 661-62, 805 A.2d 1086, [1094 (2002)]. We have similarly opined that a single detention takes place and a K-9 scan for drugs is constitutionally permissible in situations where the scan is `at a point in time when the trooper was still awaiting the results of the license and registration check [and] the scan did not prolong the detention.' Graham v. State, 119 Md. App. 444, 469, 705 A.2d 82[, 94] (1998) (quoting Munafo [ v. State ], 105 Md.App. [662,] 671-72, 660 A.2d 1068[, 1072 (1995)]). See McKoy v. State, 127 Md. App. 89, 732 A.2d 312 (1999) (after stopping the defendant's vehicle for speeding, the officer obtained the license of the defendant and, before the dispatcher responded to the officer's request for information on the defendant's license and before the citation was written, it was permissible for the K-9 to sniff the vehicle). In a case factually on point with Graham, we opined in In re Montrail M., 87 Md.App. 420, 589 A.2d 1318 (1991), that the officer had reasonable suspicion to detain the vehicle, as it was in an isolated area in the early morning hours. After the officer asked for the driver's license and registration to `run a check,' the canine unit arrived. Id. at 429, 589 A.2d [at 1323]. Before the check was completed, the canine quickly scanned the vehicle and indicated the presence of drugs. We held that `only one detention occurred,' as the `trained dog arrived on the scene while [the police officer] was still running a check on [the defendant's] license and registration, and the scan took place as the deputy completed the check.' Id. at 437, 589 A.2d [at 1327]. See Graham, 119 Md.App. at 458, 705 A.2d 82 (citing Montrail with approval for an example of what constitutes a single detention). The initial reason for the traffic stop in this case  a concealed license plate  was still ongoing when the K-9 arrived and conducted the scan of appellant's vehicle. Fortuitously, the computer check had not been completed in spite of the fact that Trooper First Class Butler and the K-9 Unit were delayed because the Trooper was unable to find the location of the traffic stop. Byndloss, 162 Md.App. at 307-08, 873 A.2d at 1246. While there may in the future be an occasion that arises in which the length of a detention caused by systems being down violates an individual's Fourth Amendment or Article 26 rights, this is not such a case. The proper method for analyzing the detention, i.e., the diligent pursuit of the investigation, was espoused in Sharpe as discussed supra by this Court in Wilkes. Petitioner argues that Sergeant Hughes should have determined whether the College Park barrack was the only system experiencing the problem, and suggests that he should have contacted another barrack immediately upon returning to his car the first time at 11:02 a.m. Furthermore, petitioner argues that Sergeant Hughes waited too long to get a response from [the Waterloo] barrack before trying another barrack, that [h]e could have called the Rockville or Forrestville barrack. We, however, find that Sergeant Hughes was sufficiently diligent in his pursuit of the records check. He knew that the College Park barrack's system was down when he first made the stop, but not how long it would be down or whether the problem was systemic, affecting the other barracks. He made his second call to College Park within a reasonable time period to see if the system was back up. At that point he was informed that he should call another barrack, which he immediately did. The Waterloo barrack informed him that they would call him with the information. When they didn't get back to him quickly, he called them back on two different occasions. These efforts on the part of Sergeant Hughes indicate reasonable diligence in obtaining the records check (as the motions judge, Circuit Court, and Court of Special Appeals found).