Court Opinion

ID: 9796129
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 03:49:38.58852+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:48:01.035850
License: Public Domain

ORME, Judge
(concurring):
T 16 I concur in the court's opinion. Those who were at oral argument in this case may find that surprising, as it would have seemed obvious to those in attendance that I inclined to the view that an officer, like the one in this case, should be permitted to approach a motorist and apologize for his mistake. It seemed to me that an explanation and apology would be simple good manners on the officer's part, as well as a prudent means of staving off a potential harassment complaint from the annoyed motorist who might otherwise conclude he had been "messed with" for no good reason.
117 The compelling logic of the lead opinion persuades me to the contrary view. And I would add that it will be an exceedingly rare circumstance when the motorist would fail to know the precise reason that the stop had been aborted. Those with temporary paper permits or renewals taped to their cars' windows know such documents are there and know that the details thereon will not be observable from any distance. If pulled over by an officer who gets back in his car and drives off upon getting within reading range of the paper permit or renewal, they will immediately figure out what happened. The same is true for a driver pulled over in the "HOV" lane of the freeway, whose diminutive back-seat passengers are not observable until the officer walks alongside the car. Even in the rare case when a motorist has no clue why he was stopped, the motorist will invariably conclude that an officer who gets back in his patrol car and drives off has just noticed behavior more egregious than whatever it was the stopped motorist had done, or that the officer has been called to an emergency more pressing than a routine traffic matter.
[ 18 In short, I agree the Fourth Amendment does not allow officers to prolong a flawed encounter by lingering to explain why it should not have been commenced in the first place. And totally aside from Fourth Amendment jurisprudence, under any scenario I can envision a motorist will be nothing less than overjoyed that an officer, having stopped the motorist's vehicle for whatever reason, has thought the better of it and decided to be on his way. No explanation required; no apology needed.