Anonymous Phone Tip Makes For Legit DUI Stop in Tennessee
The Tennessee Supreme Court has ruled that Anonymous phone tips via 911 or drunk driver hotlines are a legitimate reason for the police to stop and pull over a driver on the road.
This ruling comes days after US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts commented that a Virginia court decision that came to the opposite conclusion should be ruled upon by that court. However, the full court declined to hear the case, letting the Virginia case disallowing anonymous tips stand.
According to the ruling, the Tennessee court decided that the anonymous tip was indicative of a significant threat to public safety that immediate intervention by law enforcement is legitimate. Alerting the police to reckless driving that could be indicative of DUI is a a compelling state interest.
Almost all states allow anonymous tips as a legitimate reason for police intervention on the roads, with the exception of Virginia, noted above, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Wyoming.
What is left unstated is why it is such a burden to either require a caller to identify themselves, or actually have the police witness some traffic infraction or illegal driving behavior before stopping someone. If the threat that immediate that the police don’t have time to observe the car on the road? If the follow the car and don’t see any dangerous behavior for 5 or 10 minutes, what exactly is the danger?
Anonymous tips can be a dangerous crutch for police intervention in any situation they feel like it. That seems like a potentially dangerous risk to our civil liberties.
—
