MS: Anonymous tip for a DUI stop was insufficient without corroboration

Anonymous tip for a DUI stop was insufficient without corroboration. Cook v. State, 2015 Miss. LEXIS 130 (March 12, 2015), revg Cook v. Rankin County, 140 So. 3d 940 (Miss. App. Dec. 3, 2013) (unpublished):

P17. Rather, today’s case is similar to Eaddy, where an unknown informant reported that a person with outstanding arrest warrants was in a particular car. Like Eaddy, the officers here failed to take further action to corroborate the criminal activity reported in the tip prior to stopping Cook. Without taking further action to corroborate the criminal activity reported, the officers did not have reasonable suspicion to stop Cook. An accurate description of Cook’s vehicle and location is insufficient. As the United States Supreme Court noted in J.L., reliability of identification of a person and reliability as to the identification of criminal activity must be distinguished. See J.L., 529 U.S. at 272 (A tip correctly identifying a person in a particular location “does not show that the tipster has knowledge of concealed criminal activity. The reasonable suspicion here at issue requires that a tip be reliable in its assertion of illegality, not just in its tendency to identify a determinate person.”). Further, permitting a stop solely on an anonymous tip such as the one here can open the door for legal stops based on tips provided by persons with intent to harass or embarrass others. See id. To be clear, however, today’s opinion does not stand for the proposition that any anonymous tip, standing alone, will not sufficiently justify a search. For example, a report of someone intending to carry out a mass shooting would not require the same indicia of reliability as a report of an erratic driver. See id. at 273.

P18. The lack of sufficient indicia of reliability in today’s case, coupled with the officers’ failure to corroborate the criminal activity reported, results in the stop violating Cook’s Fourth-Amendment right to be secure from unreasonable searches and seizures. As such, the trial court erred in denying Cook’s motion to dismiss. For this same reason, the Court of Appeals erred in affirming the trial court.