The South Dakota highway riders of the world can rest a little easier now that its highest court has ruled on the police's ability to stop and question interstate travelers. In this case, the court considered the unique case of a vehicle search not made pursuant to a traffic stop, but while the owner Haar was being detained before entering his vehicle. The Court ruled against the police in this case saying that there was no basis for the initial detainment.
Here is a copy of the case South Dakota v. Haar.
Source: TheNewspaper.com
Haar denied having anything illegal and refused to consent to the search of his vehicle. Swets then told Haar that he was "free to go," even though the trooper was still blocking the Subaru. Swets simultaneously used a remote control to release a drug-sniffing dog from his patrol vehicle. The dog began sniffing the Subaru and found a large quantity of marijuana for which Haar was arrested and convicted. Haar appealed...
Swets freely admitted that the Subaru had committed no traffic violations, there were no signs of intoxication and there was no odor coming from the car. Instead, he found the cargo carrier, lack of luggage and the Illinois license plate to be highly suspicious.
"We fail to see... how a cargo box, the lack of visible luggage in a vehicle that had a cover designed to hide the luggage, and an out-of-state license plate on a vehicle in an interstate rest area provide any articulable basis upon which a reasonable person would have suspected that the Subaru was transporting illegal drugs," the court wrote.
Here is a copy of the case South Dakota v. Haar.
Source: TheNewspaper.com
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