The Supreme Court and Police Practices: A Review of Recent Traffic Stop Cases

The Supreme Court has issued opinions in a number of cases involving police conduct during traffic stops. This chapter reviews selected recent cases involving traffic stops. The Supreme Court paid little attention to the activities of the state and local law enforcement agencies. A police officer who observes a motorist commit a traffic infraction has probable cause to conduct a traffic stop. Proving a discriminatory purpose, in the absence of an officer’s unlikely admission of such, may be impossible because records of traffic stops are rarely kept to document the anecdotal evidence of targeting. In Pennsylvania v. Mimms, the Supreme Court determined that as a matter of officer safety, police may, as part of a traffic stop, order the driver out of a lawfully stopped vehicle. Search incident to arrest is a powerful investigatory weapon, as it allows a police officer to search the arrested person and the passenger compartment of the vehicle in which they were riding.