A stunning number of young people are arrested for crimes in this country, and those crimes can haunt them for the rest of their lives. In 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Crime Commission found that about half of American males could expect to be arrested for a nontraffic offense some time in their lives, mostly in their late teens and early 20s. An article just published in the journal Pediatrics shows how the arrest rate has grown — by age 23, 30 percent of Americans have been arrested, compared with 22 percent in 1967. The increase reflects in part the considerable growth in arrests for drug offenses and domestic violence.
The impact of these arrests is felt for years. The ubiquity of criminal-background checks and the efficiency of information technology in maintaining those records and making them widely available, have meant that millions of Americans — even those who served probation or parole but were never incarcerated — continue to pay a price long after the crime. In November the American Bar Association released a database identifying more than 38,000 punitive provisions that apply to people convicted of crimes, pertaining to everything from public housing to welfare assistance to occupational licenses. More than two-thirds of the states allow hiring and professional-licensing decisions to be made on the basis of an arrest alone.
Featured Case - West - Traffic Stops and Consent to Search
Court of Appeals, 2010-CA-001477-MR
Fred A. Stine, Judge, Campbell County
Before: Clayton, Stumbo, and Thompson
To-be-Published, Vacating and Remanding
Opinion by Judge Clayton
After a routine traffic stop based on expired tags, Officer Dunn ascertained that there were no warrants or other problems relating to West and his passengers. But the passengers’ attire was unusual, a female passenger did most of the talking, and she lied about where they were coming from. After the warrant check was complete, because he was curious, Officer Dunn asked West to step from the vehicle. West then admitted he had nine-and-a-half Percocets.
Held: The above facts did not give rise to a reasonable and articulable suspicion of criminal activity. It would have been legal for the officer to ask West to step out as a safety precaution while checking on warrants. Pennsylvania v. Mimms, 434 U.S. 106, 111, n. 6 (1977). But the warrant check was complete when the officer asked West to step out. The officer had observed no new behavior and learned no new facts in addition to what he had noted during the course of the stop. The subsequent detention was not “reasonably related in scope to the circumstances that justified the interference in the first place.” Epps v. Commonwealth, 295 S.W.3d 807, 812 (Ky. 2009).
Practice tip: West argued below that the Commonwealth didn’t prove voluntary consent to leave the vehicle because any reasonable person under the circumstances would not feel free to refuse the officer’s request. But the COA more properly decided the issue as a question whether there was reasonable suspicion to continue or expand the detention. Involuntariness of consent is tough to establish. Watch for moments in traffic stops where one detention ends and a new detention begins. There must be new grounds for a new detention.
Contributed by Susan Balliet
