This week, the United States Supreme Court decided upon the validity of an anonymous tip precipitating a vehicle stop. Prado Navarette v. California was a 2008 case which involved an anonymous tipster calling in a 911 complaint to the California Highway Patrol of a pickup truck that had run her off of the road. CHP officers pulled over a truck matching the vehicle’s description and subsequently arrested the occupants for possessing 30 pounds of marijuana in the truck’s bed.
In a 5-4 decision, the majority opinion concluded that an anonymous tip can constitute reasonable suspicion for police to effect an investigative traffic stop under the Fourth Amendment. Citing United States v. Cortez, the Court’s opinion, written by Justice Clarence Thomas, upheld that the Fourth Amendment permits brief investigative stops when the officer has “a particularized and objective basis for suspecting the particular person stopped of criminal activity.”
The Court held that the tip in Prado Narvarette was corroborated by the officers observing a similarly described silver Ford F150 pickup southbound on Highway 1 in the immediate area at the time the tipster gave. Further, the Court asserted that the 911 caller’s “eyewitness knowledge of the alleged dangerous driving” lends “significant support to the tip’s Continue reading
