Saturday, April 14, 2007

The Nebraska supreme court requires police to have probable cause to stop vehicles for drunk driving, except at night when the driver might actually want the officer's assistance. When the state patrol trooper stopped the defendant on a Washington County highway at 300AM, the "community caretaking" exception to the fourth amendment permitted the policeman's investigative stop. State v. Bakewell, S-06-765, 273 Neb. 372. Better known cases of the "caretaking" exception involved the police departments' seizing evidence they found in impounded vehicles. The Nevada supreme court refused to extend the caretaking exception to traffic stops "theincidentinquestionoccurredat3:15- a.m. there was little or no traffic present on this stretch of high way at the time of the incident the defendant's vehicle stopped orslowed considerably five times within approximately 90 secondswhile traveling down the highway, with the vehicle eventually-pulling off on to the shoulde rof the road. Considering the totality of the circumstances, it was reasonable for Groves to conclude that the Defendant was lost or that something was wrong"

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