CT: Officer cannot ask for consent after traffic stop as a matter of course

Once the purpose of a traffic stop is complete, an officer may not ask about searching a car without some justification. State v. Jenkins, 104 Conn. App.
417, 934 A.2d 281 (2007):

Third, to conclude that the record is inadequate on this issue creates the implication that a police officer, during a routine motor vehicle stop made on the basis of a driving infraction, is authorized to make arbitrary requests for consent searches that are wholly unrelated to the initial purpose of the stop and unsupported by additional suspicion justifying the expansion of the stop, so long as the officer chooses not to conclude the encounter. Such a blanket authorization is contrary to our search and seizure jurisprudence, which generally proscribes such arbitrary conduct on the part of the police. See State v. Nash, 278 Conn. 620, 631, 899 A.2d 1 (2006) (“[t]he police officer is not entitled to seize and search every person whom he sees on the street or of whom he makes inquiries” [internal quotation marks omitted]).

Moreover, to conclude otherwise also creates an implication that, during a routine motor vehicle stop, a defendant may not contest the validity of a consent to search unless the officer’s request for consent occurs after the officer has returned the defendant’s license and the ticket. In State v. Story, 53 Conn. App. 733, 741, 732 A.2d 785, cert. denied, 251 Conn. 901, 738 A.2d 1093 (1999), this court concluded that a police officer’s request for consent to search on the basis of nothing more than a hunch was not improper because the officer did not request the consent to search until after the stop had concluded and the defendant was free to leave at the time of the request. Mindful of Story, if we now sanction arbitrary requests for consent searches by the police prior to the conclusion of a stop, we effectively close the door on a criminal defendant’s ability ever to contest the validity of a consent to search during a motor vehicle stop.

On the basis of the record, we conclude that Morgan’s inquiry as to whether the defendant was engaged in illegal activity went beyond the scope of the traffic stop and occurred at a time when the stop reasonably should have ended. Having reached that conclusion, we now must determine whether Morgan had reasonable, articulable suspicion to expand the scope of the stop by questioning the defendant about illegal activity unrelated to the purpose of the underlying stop. See United States v. Santiago, supra, 341-42 (“Once a computer check is completed and the officer either issues a citation or determines that no citation should be issued, the detention should end and the driver should be free to leave. … In order to continue a detention after such a point, the officer must have a reasonable suspicion supported by articulable facts that a crime has been or is being committed.” [Citation omitted.]).

A store sales clerk was a citizen informant on an identity theft and forgery attempt. The police stopped defendant’s car after she left Best Buy based on the sales clerk’s report. Defendant returned to Best Buy, and the car was searched there incident to an impending impoundment for driving on a fake driver’s license, the one associated with the identity theft. The search was justified as a search incident, so the inventory issue did not need to be reached. Cobbs v. State, 2007 Ark. App. LEXIS 802 (November 14, 2007)* (unpublished).