Court Opinion

ID: 9709938
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 03:57:57.862312+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:52.871943
License: Public Domain

LEVINE, Justice,
concurring in the result.
I agree that Guthmiller’s prolonged stop at the stop sign was sufficiently corroborative of the anonymous tip that he was driving under the influence to justify the stop made by the law enforcement officer. In other words, the tip and the stop provided the officer with an articulable and reasonable suspicion that the person stopped was, or was about to be, engaged in criminal activity. I, therefore, concur in the affirmance.
I do not agree with the majority’s reference to a “caretaking or casual encounter with a parked car” that would justify further investigation, seizure or arrest. It is an unnecessary piece of legal analysis because our decision is not based on it. Having said that, I want to emphasize that a stop made for exercising a caretaking function or casual encounter is subject to the reasonable suspicion standard when the officer is also engaged in crime detection. Wibben v. North Dakota State Highway Comm’r, 413 N.W.2d 329, 331 n. 1 (N.D.1987). Nor do I believe that Guthmiller’s pause at the stop sign, without the anonymous tip, would be sufficient to constitute either reasonable suspicion or trigger any caretaking duty on the part of a law enforcement officer. A momentary delay at a stop sign does not give a law enforcement officer the right to confront the driver. After all, the Fourth Amendment seeks to minimize governmental confrontations with the individual. United States v. Dunbar, 470 F.Supp. 704 (D.Conn.1979).
I concur in the result.