Opinion ID: 2608625
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the initial stop of the pontiac

Text: Uptegraft first contends, [4] relying principally on Delaware v. Prouse, 440 U.S. 648, 99 S.Ct. 1391, 59 L.Ed.2d 660 (1979), that the police had no basis for stopping the Pontiac. Prouse, which held that random vehicle stops are illegal when police have no articulable basis for suspecting a legal violation, is not on point. Here the state demonstrated that the police had sufficient facts to warrant a reasonable person in the belief that the investigatory stop was justified. Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 21-22, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1879-1880, 20 L.Ed.2d 889, 906 (1968). In Coleman v. State, 553 P.2d 40 (Alaska 1976), which involved an investigatory stop of a motor vehicle, we established the test for making such stops: [A] police officer with a reasonable suspicion that imminent public danger exists or serious harm that has recently occurred was caused by a particular person may stop that person. 553 P.2d at 43. [5] The police in this case had seen the Pontiac near the scene of the crime, moments after it had occurred. Officer Dinwiddie testified that the Pontiac was the only vehicle he passed on the road between the time he first saw it and the time he came upon the stolen pickup truck. There were tire tracks in the snow, indicating that an automobile had headed in the direction the Pontiac was traveling. These facts were enough to infer that the lone robber had met one or more accomplices and had made his getaway in the Pontiac. Consequently, we conclude that the initial stop was permissible.