Court Opinion

ID: 9624264
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 06:56:12.943955+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:05:41.887945
License: Public Domain

Chief Justice Frye
concurring.
In this case, the Court of Appeals held that the facts available to Officer Ipock before defendant was seized were sufficient to raise a reasonable and articulable suspicion of criminal activity and that the trial court did not err by denying defendant’s motion to suppress. I agree. The majority modifies the Court of Appeals’ opinion in order to “disagree [with] and clarify” the Court of Appeals’ statement that a legal left turn at the intersection immediately preceding a posted DWI checkpoint does not, without more, justify an investigatory stop. I would affirm the decision of the Court of Appeals without modification.
The key in the Court of Appeals’ language is the phrase “without more.” Here, as the Court of Appeals indicated, there was more than the left turn which justified the seizure. When Officer Ipock located the vehicle within seconds after it turned onto Taylor Street, the vehicle’s engine was not running, the lights were off, and the occupants were crouched down in the dark. These additional factors wer sufficient to raise a reasonable and articulable suspicion of criminal activity before defendant was seized by Officer Ipock.
The Court of Appeals emphasized that it was not only constitutionally permissible, but prudent, for officers to follow vehicles that avoided the DWI checkpoint in order to ascertain whether other factors raised a reasonable and articulable suspicion of criminal activity. However, there is a difference between stopping a vehicle and simply following it. Reasonable and articulable suspicion is necessary for an investigatory stop, but unnecessary to justify following a vehicle. While mere avoidance of a DWI checkpoint may prompt law enforecement officers to follow a vehicle, it does not, alone, give rise to a reasonable and articulable suspicion of criminal activity.
*634I would add that if a systematic plan for an impaired driving checkpoint pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 20-16.3A provides for stopping every car that turns off the highway within the perimeters of the checkpoint, then it is unnecessary to justify such a stop on the basis of reasonable and articulable suspicion. In such case, the stop is based on the systematic plan rather than the discretion of the officer or an articulable suspicion of criminal activity. However, as the Court of Appeals stated, avoidance of a posted DWI checkpoint, “without more, does not justify an investigatory stop.”