Recorded in North Las Vegas while teaching a search and seizure class. The question is one that keeps coming up around the country: does Rodriguez v. United States mean you can never extend a traffic stop?
Hey guys, it’s Anthony Bandiero here, attorney and senior legal instructor, bringing the roadside chat. This broadcast is coming from North Las Vegas, teaching here at a great agency, teaching search and seizure. But let’s get down to the question.
As I’ve been teaching around the country, I still find that a lot of people are maybe either misinterpreting or a little confused about this Rodriguez case. So let’s kind of go back in time.
What did Rodriguez v. United States actually hold?
Rodriguez is that Supreme Court case that held that you may not extend a traffic stop beyond the traffic stop’s mission to basically pursue other investigations.
So for example, a classic example is you have a pretext. You think that a person’s involved in some other criminal activity, guns, drugs, stolen property, but you need a reason to stop them. So you stop them for, let’s say, a tail light violation or a moving violation. Well, if that’s the reason why you’re going to stop the person, you do not get a free drug, gun, stolen property investigation with every tail light violation. The Supreme Court says you got to stay on mission.
And that just makes sense, right? Because that is a detention under the Fourth Amendment, and you must be diligent in your investigation. If you’re going to choose to stop somebody for a tail light violation, that is your mission.
Does Rodriguez mean you can never extend a traffic stop?
Now sometimes people think that Rodriguez also stands for the proposition that no matter what kind of happens during that traffic stop, you don’t get any extra time to pursue investigations even with reasonable suspicion.
So for example, whether you have a pretext or not, you stop a person for speeding, and during that speeding investigation you also see other indicators of criminal activity. Travel plans don’t add up. One way rental cars. Criminal history. Recent border crossings. The list goes on and on. And so you say to yourself, hey, I have reasonable suspicion for criminal activity, specifically for narcotics.
Can you extend that traffic stop in order to get a canine on scene, to then deploy around the car and see if it alerts? And the answer is absolutely yes, without any doubt. Because Rodriguez only answers one question, which is going off mission during a routine traffic stop, or better yet, detaining people for longer than necessary or reasonable for the reason for the stop.
Rodriguez is not a case that stands for the proposition that you cannot extend a traffic stop with reasonable suspicion. In fact, in Rodriguez the last line in that case is remanding, or sending that case back to the lower court, the Eighth Circuit, to ask them, hey, your officer went off mission, basically detained this guy for seven minutes with no reasonable suspicion. However, did he have reasonable suspicion? Look at it. Maybe your officer did have reasonable suspicion, and that detention would have been lawful.
How long can you hold a traffic stop waiting for a K9?
Now I bring up some cases. I’m kind of looking at my computer here, and this is from a legal research service that I use, Westlaw. I’m just going to give you an example of courts around this country since Rodriguez that have found that the officer lawfully extended the traffic stop in order to get a canine on scene.
Now how long do you have to get that K-9 on scene? In most states it’s whatever is reasonable. There is no time limit. I’ve seen cases over an hour. I’ve seen cases at 30 minutes. I’ve seen cases that say, you know, under these circumstances 10 minutes. There is no time limit.
The only place that has a time limit, and there’s cops in the room behind me, is Nevada. You have 60 minutes total to get that canine out there. Nevada is a unique state in that sense. No other state to my knowledge has a strict rule like that.
Which courts have upheld extending a stop for a drug dog?
But I’m going to read just examples of states that said, hey, courts have said, hey look, if you have reasonable suspicion that’s developed on the traffic stop, you can absolutely detain them while the dog is en route, and you just have to be diligent. So yes, it could add some time. It’s going to add some time to the traffic stop.
There’s a case out of Maine. A case out of the Third Circuit. A case out of the Fifth Circuit, Louisiana. And now I’m going to start naming some states. Kentucky. Michigan. This is the Seventh Circuit. South Dakota. Nebraska. Utah. Indiana and so forth. So the list goes on and on and on.
What is the rule for officers on the road?
So guys, for those people who are thinking to themselves, man, after Rodriguez we can’t even extend the traffic stop with reasonable suspicion, that is not correct. The rule here is that you’re in a very tight situation here where you stop it, you can’t go off mission unless you have reasonable suspicion. But if you do develop reasonable suspicion, you can then do what? Expand the traffic stop to pursue that reasonable suspicion. If that also includes bringing out a dog on scene, you can do it without question. Just make sure you have reasonable suspicion for that narcotic activity.
Okay, if you have any more questions, if this area is still confusing or uncertain to you, all you got to do is put some comments in the YouTube comments or reach out to us at bluetogold.com, use the chat function and get some clarification and so forth. All right, keep doing a great job out there, keep us safe and so forth, and I’ll see you guys next time.
The short version
- Rodriguez held that you may not extend a traffic stop beyond the traffic stop’s mission to basically pursue other investigations.
- You do not get a free drug, gun, stolen property investigation with every tail light violation. The Supreme Court says you got to stay on mission.
- Rodriguez is not a case that stands for the proposition that you cannot extend a traffic stop with reasonable suspicion.
- Can you extend that traffic stop in order to get a canine on scene? The answer is absolutely yes, without any doubt.
- In most states it’s whatever is reasonable. There is no time limit. I’ve seen cases over an hour, at 30 minutes, at 10 minutes.
- The only place that has a time limit is Nevada. You have 60 minutes total to get that canine out there.
- You can absolutely detain them while the dog is en route, and you just have to be diligent.
- Just make sure you have reasonable suspicion for that narcotic activity.
Related from Blue to Gold
- Can Officers Ask for Consent During a Traffic Stop Under Rodriguez?
- Traffic Stop Searches with Consent
- Can You Keep Asking for Consent Until You Get an Answer?
This article is an edited transcript of Roadside Chat Ep. #450. It is legal training, not legal advice. Check your state law and your agency policy, because both can be more restrictive than the Fourth Amendment.
