Reasonable Suspicion to make traffic stop

[blaster668]

Last night I was driving my car on a 55mph posted US highway at close to the posted speed limit. It was lightly raining.

I was then pulled over by a local police agency which has a pretty bad reputation. When the officer approached my window, he asked if I knew what he pulled me over for. I replied that I did not know. At this point the officer hesitated and shined his light around a little. Then came back with "do you have studded tires on?", I did not answer. Of course he looked at the tires, and they are studded (I admit, just haven't got around to changing them). The officer wrote me a citation for the offense.

I asked the LEO what the original reason was to make the stop. His reply was that he heard the studded tires.

I do not buy into this story one bit, at 55mph a car makes a lot of noise, especially on a rainy day. Plus the rain drops were hitting his car, and his car was probably running. Because of the rain, I highly doubt his windows were even down.

I truly believe that I was just caught in a revenue producing fishing expedition.

Yes I realize I broke the law, but do you guys think this was a legal stop?

[1861]

Sorry , but yes I do.

[SlimShady]

Yep, whether you realize it or not, studded tires make a heck of a racket on asphalt at speed.

[Farbmeister]

Nope.

If its raining, even lightly the windows are up. Then add radios, the cops own engine and whatever else is going on there is little chance he 'heard' anything.

Go to court, get the offense thrown out. At what point does 'the car made a funny noise' that is probable cause? Unless the judge is also very pro enforcement... you should win.

Heck I would even set up a demo with my own car and mic positioned where the LEO was.

[1861]

I was an LEO 30 years and my driver window was down regardless of weather or season .

[knight0334]

I'm gonna lean to it being a legal stop. If he claimed he heard studded tires, and then upon stop finding studded tires after the legal date - well, my money is on the Magistrate siding with the LEO.

[blaster668]

I was an LEO 30 years and my driver window was down regardless of weather or season .

So this means every LEO practices this????

[tlgpa]

If he claimed he heard studded tires, and then upon stop finding studded tires after the legal date - well, my money is on the Magistrate siding with the LEO.

Agreed. According to the OP. the offcier asked if he had studded tires, then looked to confirm.

Either he made a really good guess, randomly pulling someone over and hopeing they had studded tires. Or he actually heard them.

So this means every LEO practices this????

It means at least one does. So likely more than one does as well. But all you need is one, the one who got you.

Edit: One more below. That makes at least 2

[chrisjames_71]

Nope.

If its raining, even lightly the windows are up. Then add radios, the cops own engine and whatever else is going on there is little chance he 'heard' anything.

Go to court, get the offense thrown out. At what point does 'the car made a funny noise' that is probable cause? Unless the judge is also very pro enforcement... you should win.

Heck I would even set up a demo with my own car and mic positioned where the LEO was.

You think?? I know a lot of us that keep our window down when on patrol (they actually teach us that in the academy) and if I am just sitting there watching traffic, I guarantee you my window is down enough to hear a duck fart...do duck's really fart??... And for the record, I cannot even hear my engine while idling and the radio has a nice little volume button. You'd be amazed at how much we can actually hear when we are sitting there watching traffic...

[LittleRedToyota]

imho, there is about zero chance of this getting thrown out.

whether he actually heard any noise or not will be irrelevant...he will say he heard the noise, and he did, in fact, find the source of the noise and the source was, in fact, illegal.

(and i also gotta think studded tires on asphalt at 55mph must make quite a bit of noise...heck, mud terrain tires without any studs make a heck of a lot of noise.)