“Probable cause” was the term used by the traffic control authorities. The thrash about what traffic control authorities allow on American roads and what they don’t, there were no guidelines available. Last week, all this drama of “probable cause” took a new twist with a Florida ruling that heaved out a conviction stemming from a police officer who found something wrong with car colour.
In 2010, there was a case of colourful car handled by a deputy in Florida State. He saw a Kendrick Van Teamer driving a bright green Chevrolet and on scanning his number plates, deputy found that the car was registered as a blue Chevrolet.
Deputy was unable file any criminal reports or pending crimes against the driver or even any crimes that involved any green or blue Chevrolet and most importantly, Teamer was not violating any traffic laws either but deputy pulled the Teamer over anyway and charged him for mismatching the colours of Chevrolet. On investigation, deputy found a small amount of cocaine and marijuana with $1,100 in cash. He was then charged for drug trafficking and possession. He was sentenced to prison for six years.
On the appeal of Teamer last week, Florida Supreme Court freed him on a 5-2 decision, and upheld a lower court appeal ruling that deputy was wrong to stop Teamer based on car colour that did not match the registration.
The court also noted that in several U.S. Supreme Court rulings, justices have found that pulling over the drivers on everyday behaviour that doesn’t lead to crime is common practice by the police but they can’t be pulled over, and Teamer’s case was not different from those cases. A car colour issue was far more than a simple hunch: “A stop in such circumstances cannot fairly be called an ‘arbitrary and abusive’ police practice.”
Don’t be amazed if the Supreme Court itself has to weigh in someday soon on whether motorists can be considered suspicious simply for the colour of their rides.
