The Observations of the Informant Must be Placed on the Record to Justify a Stop

If you’ve been a reader of this blog, I’ve discussed the justification for a traffic stop based upon the observations of an informant. A recent Third Appellant District Court case further defines the information necessary to justify the stop.

In this case, State v. Fields, 2009 Ohio 5909, an informant called police dispatch to inform them of a suspected drunk driver. The defendant filed a motion to suppress claiming the police officer had insufficient cause to stop the Defendant. At the motion hearing, the state called the informant who testified as follows:

Q Did you have an opportunity to make a 911 call on November 28th, 2008, around 6 o'clock in the event?

A Yes.

Q And where were you at when you made that call?

A I was heading south on South Sandusky.

Q And is that in the City of Upper Sandusky?

A Yes. Hm-hmm.

Q Wyandot County, Ohio?

A Yeah.

Q Could you describe what you observed?

At no time did the informant testify as to his personal observations of the defendant at the time of the incident. In addition, the officer’s testimony failed to illustrate that he or the dispatcher were aware of the details of the informant’s personal observations.

In its analysis, the court cited State v. Bailey, 2008 Ohio 2254. In that case the arresting officer testified that he had received a dispatch that another police department had received a call of a "possible drunk driver" and that one of the officers at the other department had witnessed the same vehicle speeding. The arresting officer located the vehicle and pulled it over after observing the vehicle's failure to signal. Neither the other police officer who had observed the vehicle's speeding nor the dispatcher who had received the citizen's phone call testified at the hearing. In addition, the citizen informant who had made the original call to the other police department testified extensively to his personal observations of the defendant's erratic driving. However, there was no testimony demonstrating what, if any, information the eyewitness had relayed to the other police department's dispatcher concerning the defendant's erratic behavior. Since the State had failed to demonstrate that the law-enforcement community as a whole possessed facts constituting probable cause to arrest.

In its conclusion, the court stated, “there is an absence of evidence demonstrating that someone in the law enforcement community knew specific facts that would support reasonable, articulable suspicion of criminal activity. The State failed to demonstrate that [the informant’s] personal observations were relayed to the dispatcher, thereby allowing [the arresting officer] to solely rely on the dispatch to justify his investigative stop of [the informant]. Furthermore, [the officer’s] testimony, considered alone, fails to demonstrate reasonable, articulable suspicion of criminal activity. While we acknowledge that there is evidence that a law enforcement officer...eventually talked to [the informant] at the scene, this did not occur until after [the arresting officer] had already approached Fields to make the detention and investigation.

Therefore, this court held that the state must place the following on the record in support of a stop based upon the observations of an informant:

1. The observations of the informant, and

2. That these observations were communicated to the arresting officer, and

3. The observations will support reasonable, articuable suspicion of criminal activity..

For evidentiary purposes, the court will not allow the trier of fact to draw an inference based solely on conclusary statements of a dispatcher. To do otherwise would permit the trier of fact to draw and inference on an inference which would violate the Rules of Evidence.