ok i asked 1 question already, but i want to know do police have to have a reason to run your tags and......?

Question

my hubby got pulled over today. the cop was targeting cars and pulling them over. my hubby had seen 2 cars pulled over by the same officer within 10-20 minutes. then my hubby was driving PROPERLY, doing NOT A THING WRONG, and the officer drove out of his parking spot where he was sitting and came towards my hubby and then turned around and got behind him...ran his tags and seen his licence were only work priv only (which we obviously misunderstood the judge...we thought if he paid his fine by Nov of this year he would get his licence back but now we know today its only for work) but do the police have to have a reason to pull you over or run your tags if you arent doing a thing wrong? we live in ohio so where can i find a code or amendment to back this up? like i said he did nothing wrong, we assumed he had them back, and how would the officer know my hubby wasnt working? is this legal for him to just stop him w/out knowing if he was or wasnt working? he had a officer trainee with him

and supposivly was just training the officer how to conduct traffic stops. but the thing is dont they have to have a reason for stop or running tags? he did not break any laws nor got a ticket for anything else, since there was no ticket he could give. but he did get one for driving under suspension...like i said we misunderstood the judge. but where can i find our rights online for traffic stop and if this is legal or not. i dont see how he can just target people and pull them over for basically nothing. or is it allowed that they can just run tags and pull everyone over??

i need a site to back up your answer please...if its a yes they can or no they cant...please an ohio code or amendment or something. i tried finding this online and not finding what im looking for. i dont see why he did that...

Answer 1

Don't beat yourself up over this. The cop is going to win - he is going to say he had a reason and in the end, the courts will support him. Concentrate on defense. Sadly, it's all you can do at this point. The cop probably was rogue, but unless you have a spare million dollars to fight your city hall, you are not going to win.

Answer 2

Yes, a police officer can run your license plate without reason. The officer does have to have probable cause to pull you over. Both of these are covered not under state law but under the 4th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. You have no reasonable expectation of privacy for your license plate because it is displayed in plain view to the public.

As for the probable cause to pull your husband over, that's hard to answer because I was not in the police car with the officer to know what he was thinking or what he saw. Without hearing his account of the stop, i can't give a definite answer as to whether he had probable cause or not. I can say that when i run a plate, the registered owner's license information comes with it. If this is the case with the officer that made the stop, he would have seen that your husband's license was suspended. That information would have given the officer probable cause to pull the vehicle over.

I suggest that when you go to court, try to explain to the judge that you misunderstood the conditions of the suspension. It may or may not help.

Answer 3

My husband's a police officer in Waco, TX, and he can run anyone's license plate for any reason, or no reason at all. That's one of the main ways they screen a car for probable cause to pull you over. How else are they going to find stolen vehicles on the road? It's not the officers fault, your husband was operating a vehicle when he wasn't supposed to. It sucks to get caught, but your husband's in the wrong, not the officer.
One more thing. The trainee is a licensed police officer. Their just a new hire and have to spend a set amount of time training with the departments FTO.

Answer 4

It is a classic Terry case. Because of Terry V Ohio a Police Officer can stop a car based upon reasonable suspicion. This burden of proof is relatively low and because of how intricate the traffic laws are most police officers can find reasonable suspicion to pull you over. So yes the officer could pull your husband over assuming he had reasonable suspicion to believe your husband was committing or going to committ a crime.

Answer 5

Police can run tags for any reason in most states. License information is considered public. So the stop was valid. Don't blame the police because your husband can't follow the restrictions placed on his license.

Also, your husband was doing something wrong...He was driving when he wasn't supposed to. A much more serious offense then speeding or rolling through a stop sign.

Answer 6

Angel, it is perfectly legal for an officer to run tags on any car, based on these concepts:

1. You do not have the right to drive a car. (It is a legal privilege granted by law based on conditions such as passing a driver's test, operating a safe vehicle, paying for licenses for yourself and your car, etc. It is NOT a constitutonally protected right.)

2. Your license plates are in public view. An officer can look at anything on the outside of your car - such as the plates - at any time. Contents of a car? Different story.

3. The perennial cry of "I didn't do anything wrong" is so overworked that nobody cares any more. Your husband was violating limitations placed on his driving privileges, so he WAS doing something wrong. Saying he didn't do anything wrong just makes you look stupid for whining.

4. The presence of an officer trainee is not relevant to the legality of the senior officer's actions.

Answer 7

We can 'run your tag' anytime. That's how we find stolen cars, wanted felons, and people who don't have valid driver's licenses.
To say your husband 'wasn't doing anything wrong' is an invalid statement... if his license was suspended and he was given a 'work only' license, the officer did his job in stopping him and determining if the person is operating the vehicle in contrary to the order of the court.
To say that 'you didn't understand' the order of the court isn't a valid statement either. The court order is in black and white.. it is very specific.
I really enjoy YA, but I'm very tired of people who refuse to take responsibility for their own actions. Don't blame the officers for what happened. They did their job and did it well...
Your husband was in the wrong, not them.

Answer 8

Just like anything else the govt does,they are pretty slow to upgrade their information on their warrant codes.They also routinely run license tag numbers on certain car types to see if they are stolen or have any warrants against the drivers. Its a hassle but if you were ripped off you would want them to use all means to recover your property.Also with all the AMBER alerts simply the color of a car, or having a child in your car could cause a pull over.

Answer 9

Police can run your tags anytime.
That is how they find out if your car is stolen, expired tag, etc.

Depending upon the state or department the driver's license information may come back to the police officer when he does this.

The police offier may have known about the suspension before pulling your hub over.

If he did NOT know this, he should not have stopped him for training purposes.

Answer 10

In New York State they now have a vehicle mounted camera that is capable of running every license plate in a crowded parking lot at a rate of 1 every 3 seconds ... they can run your license plate for any reason, no reason at all, or just because they have the time.

If New York has them (in use in small cities, not just NYC!) They will be coming to a jurisdiction near you soon.