Court Opinion

ID: 9733864
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 17:19:11.598693+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:44.164199
License: Public Domain

*182PAPADAKOS, Justice,
dissenting.
I must dissent. The majority opinion compels a conclusion that a police officer can stop anyone, anyplace, anytime of the day or night, for no articulable reason at all, and then form a reasonable belief that the person so stopped, whether in or about anyone’s motor vehicle, has been driving while under the influence of alcohol in violation of 75 Pa.C.S. 3731. The police officer can then subject the person to arrest for violating Section 3731, take the person to a breathalyzer station and order the person to undergo a breathalyzer test. If the person refuses, the driver’s license is suspended for one year. But if the person is wise to our ways, the person will take the breathalyzer test and no matter what its reading, it must be suppressed because of the illegal stop and the license cannot be suspended.
The majority authorizes this abhorrent governmental intrusion upon us with the excuse that the proceedings arising out of this police state action involve nothing more than administrative agencies and, because of the admitted illegal stop, cannot result in a criminal prosecution.
Section 6308(a) of the Motor Vehicle Code, 75 Pa.C.S. 6308(a) states: “(a) Duty of operator or pedestrian. — The operator of any vehicle or any pedestrian reasonably believed to have violated any provision of this title shall stop upon request or signal of any police officer____”
To me, this is a clear signal from the Legislature that our police are not empowered to stop anyone within the context of the Motor Vehicle Code unless they have a reasonable belief that the person to be stopped has violated any provision of the Motor Vehicle Code.
When police illegally discover a driver who they reasonably believe to have been driving while under the influence, they should prevent his further driving in that condition and thus avoid exhibiting any callous disregard for the safety of any other citizen upon the highway. To protect the innocent traveller, there is no need to commit illegal acts upon the presumed wrongdoer.