Court Opinion

ID: 9748522
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 16:04:29.672982+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:36.569577
License: Public Domain

Dissenting opinion by
Justice GRAVES.
I respectfully dissent because Trooper Oliver’s investigatory stop was more reasonable than the conclusions drawn by the Majority. The accurate tip from an anonymous citizen, reporting dangerous behavior to the police for the immediate safety of the highways, had more than sufficient indicia of reliability to justify an investigatory stop.
Courts across the country evaluate the quality of the information based on whether it was received from a “professional” or criminal informant, or a cooperative citizen who was either a witness to or victim of a crime. Seven federal circuits and thirty seven states recognize this distinction. 1-3 SEARCH AND SEIZURE § 3.19; Pawloski v. State, 269 Ind. 350, 380 N.E.2d 1230 (1978); State v. Ronngren, 361 N.W.2d 224 (N.D.1985). The courts in these jurisdictions make this distinction because, while criminal informants’ information may be suspect, when citizens altruistically report a crime in progress, the law ought to presume their veracity. If trial courts make this distinction in determining probable cause, the reasonability of a police officer’s suspicion when performing a “Terry” stop is further improved Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968).
The majority also seems to add a requirement that officers corroborate criminal activity, even though the United States Supreme Court has never endorsed such a requirement. Neither Florida v. J.L., 529 U.S. 266, 120 S.Ct. 1375, 146 L.Ed.2d 254 (2000), nor Alabama v. White, 496 U.S. 325, 110 S.Ct. 2412, 110 L.Ed.2d 301 (1990), suggest that the only acceptable indicium of reliability is criminal activity, as the majority does today. In J.L., supra, the Supreme Court emphasized the importance of the predictive facets of a tip, but principally criticized the near total lack of any indicia of reliability. The informant not only remained anonymous, but provided no information regarding how he knew *118about the gun or why his information was reliable. Further, the informant’s bare description of J.L., i.e., “a young black male standing at a particular bus stop and wearing a plaid shirt,” was a description any casual bystander could- have provided, and one that could have applied to a number of men in Miami who used that bus stop. Finally, the description did not provide any context for how the informant gained such information. 529 U.S. at 268, 120 S.Ct. at 1377. In the absence of any minimal indicia of reliability, the Supreme Court held that the police officer did not have a reasonable or reliable suspicion.
Furthermore, in White, supra, the Supreme Court upheld an investigatory stop without corroboration of criminal activity. As the majority has already related, the police in White received an anonymous phone call explaining that a woman would be leaving a specific apartment in a certain vehicle at a particular time, and that she would be transporting cocaine to a designated motel. The tipster further specified that the woman would be carrying the cocaine in a brown attaché case. However, when she left, she did not have a brown attaché case. Even though the police did hot corroborate the only criminal detail of the tip, the Supreme Court nevertheless found the investigatory stop reasonable, based on the accuracy of the other information.
Examining the case decided today, the information provided to Trooper Oliver sufficiently verified the anonymous citizen’s tip. The caller - identified a white, male driving a white Chevrolet Blazer with a specific license plate number. Calling from the gas station where he had personally witnessed the driver throw what appeared to be alcohol, argue with another driver, and exhibit behavior suggestive of intoxication, he not only provided accurate and detailed information, but also explained his means of such. The caller predicted that the drunk driver would proceed south on 1-75. Trooper Oliver thereafter located the white Chevrolet Blazer traveling south on 1-75 just a few miles from the gas station, precisely where the caller predicted. Trooper Oliver verified every detail of the tip except the drunken behavior of the driver. Although aberrant driving would have made a stop more reasonable, considering the veracity and detail of the citizen’s tip, Trooper Oliver’s investigatory stop hardly seems unreasonable.
Other factors contributing to the conclusion that Trooper Oliver’s suspicion was reasonable include the United States Supreme Court’s expressed fears about the dangers of drunk driving, as well as some philosophical reflections on probability and reasonableness.
In Michigan Department of State Police v. Sitz, 496 U.S. 444,110 S.Ct. 2481, 110 L.Ed.2d 412 (1990), the Supreme Court drew attention to the annual death toll in accidents involving drunk drivers, pointing out that over 25,000 deaths, one .million injuries, and $5 billion worth of property damage is caused by drunk driving every year. Id. at 451. Sitz dealt specially with the constitutionality of police checkpoints in administering sobriety tests. Although the issue in that case differs from the issue herein, it illustrates not only the state’s interest in preventing drunk driving, but also the minimal invasiveness of an automobile stop.
Furthermore, Probable cause and reasonable suspicion are both assertions reflecting a state of mind similar to opinion. More certain than a possibility, they reflect probabilities rather than certainty. According to Max Black, Probabilities, THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PHILOSOPHY 6, 465 (The Macmillan Co. & Free Press, 1967), “The point of making a probability assertion is to make a prediction *119that is both sound (justified by the evidence) and successful (true); if it is the first it may be called warranted, if the second, fulfilled.” The difference between the two remains fundamentally a difference between probabilities. Although the meanings of probable cause and reasonable suspicion are inexorably connected to their legal origins, a common sense philosophical reflection on the two can clarify the distinction.
“Probable cause” emphasizes the objective character of the assertion; while “reasonable suspicion” focuses on the state of mind of the subject making the assertion. This conclusion finds support in the legal focus on the entirety of the circumstances surrounding a reasonable suspicion, while the law remains slightly less malleable when discerning probable cause. Although we cannot expect courts to thoroughly investigate the subjective value of an officer’s suspicion, the subjectivity of the standard allows more room for one’s personal inarticulable insight drawn from years of experience in law enforcement. The best way to account for the imprecise measurement of probabilities that trial courts encounter in these matters is to simply ask whether a conclusion is unreasonable.
In this case, Trooper Oliver’s probability assertion manifested in his investigatory stop proved fulfilled, but we must still inquire as to its justification on the evidence available to him. Nothing in the record indicates that Trooper Oliver had any reason to suspect the veracity of the anonymous citizen-informant. He responded no differently than he would have if the tip came from an anonymous eyewitness to a drug deal or kidnapping. Ideally, a drunk driver would provide an officer with superabundant evidence of intoxication. Even though some drunk drivers do not drive awkwardly, they still present a danger to others because their motor skills and reaction time are impaired. Drunk drivers remain a danger on the road and a threat to others even if they may appear to drive competently.
Trooper Oliver acted quickly and relied on the evidence from a tipster, rather than wait for the evidence from an accident. Thus, he kept the roads safer for everyone on the highways of our Commonwealth. I see no reason to fault an officer discharging his duties or a citizen who generously takes the time to report a crime. The tipster should be commended for being a good citizen and doing more than is required or expected. For these reasons, I would affirm the judgment of the trial court.
WINTERSHEIMER, J., joins in this dissent.