See Navarette v. California, 134 S.Ct 1683 (2014) (April). Episode 101 (Duration 21:22).

Live streaming while driving drunk is one thing…but what about an anonymous complaint? Can any old complaint of your driving get you pulled over?

So live streaming your own crime of drunk driving is definitely going to get you pulled over. But can an anonymous tip or complain that you are driving drunk also get you pulled over?

How It Begins…

The case began when an anonymous 911 caller called the police and reported that a

“ …silver Ford F150 pickup truck with license plate number 8D94925 had run an unidentified reporting party off the roadway … ”

An officer:

* Finds the truck

* Follows It

* For Five Minutes

* Finds or Sees Nothing

* Driver is Driving Fine

So, naturally the officer stops the car anyway.

Police say they smelled marijuana. They search the truck and 30 pounds of weed are found. Wham! The case gets litigated all way to the Supreme Court.

The Law On An Anonymous Tip

The law in this area has been (and I think still is) that… 

The Fourth Amendment “permits brief investigative stops”

 …when law enforcement has some “particularized and objective basis for suspecting the particular person stopped of criminal activity.”

This is basic Terry stop principles.

When it comes to anonymous tips, without more, the tip: 

“seldom demonstrates” a sufficient “basis of knowledge or veracity” to justify a stop. However, where a tip bears “sufficient indicia of reliability” rising to “reasonable suspicion of criminal activity,” an investigatory traffic stop may be justified.

So an anonymous 911 call requires some indicia of reliability.

Factors of Reliability

In this case, the facts revealed that three important factors of reliability existed.

* The reporter had necessarily claimed eyewitness knowledge of . . . dangerous driving.

* Given the time frames involved the tipster likely called the police right after he or she was run off the road. Temporal proximity is still an important indicator because the U.S. legal system “generally credits” the notion that “contemporaneous reports” will be “especially trustworthy.

* The fact that the person called 911 is significant. This suggests the tip was truthful because the system’s design makes it possible to identify and trace callers” and safeguard against false reporting. Thus, “a reasonable officer” might expect a liar to avoid dialing 911.

Factors Against Reliability

In this case, the facts revealed five important factors that weighed against reliability.

*  Caller was anonymous. Anonymity is inconsistent with accountability. Why would the caller not want to be identified?

* For five minutes police saw no bad driving, thus discrediting the concern over an intoxicated driver.

* An “eyewitness” contemporaneous caller does nothing to corroborate a likelihood of criminal activity. Exactly how does immediacy lends to credibility? In this case, a person driving on the streets saw a truck and had enough time to write the license plate down. So What?

* Most people are unaware that 911 callers can be identified.

* What does “ran me off the road” mean? This raises no likelihood that the driver was drunk...