Court Opinion

ID: 9644720
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 21:02:44.422406+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:17.003723
License: Public Domain

ROBERTS, Judge
(concurring).
I agree that Sergeant Hill was justified in stopping the appellant’s car for investigation. See Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968); Adams v. Williams, 407 U.S. 143, 92 S.Ct. 1921, 32 L.Ed.2d 612 (1972); Hernandez v. State, 523 S.W.2d 410 (Tex.Cr.App.1975).
However, I cannot agree that the out-of-county license plates on the car constituted any part of this justification. As we said in Faulkner v. State, (Tex.Cr.App.1976), No. 51,235 (delivered November 17, 1976) 2 TCR 178: “The out-of-county tags and slow driving were not evidence of any wrongdoing.”
The basis for such a conclusion is obvious. Our society has become an extremely mobile one: Intercounty, interstate, and even international automobile travel is not merely commonplace, but pervasive. To say that such travel is suspicious is to point the *129finger of criminal accusation at the great majority of American citizens.
For these reasons I cannot agree with the majority’s implication that out-of-county license plates can be part of a police officer’s justification for an investigative stop.