CA10: Criminal history questions during a traffic stop reveal no more than the computer check would and aren’t unreasonable

It wasn’t unreasonable for the officer to ask criminal history questions during a traffic stop because the computer check would reveal the same information. Travel plan questions didn’t extend the stop, and defendant’s gun was seen when he got out of the vehicle. “If running a computer check of a driver’s criminal history is justifiable as a ‘negligibly burdensome’ inquiry useful for officer safety, we fail to see how asking the driver about that history could be unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment. The information requested by Maher did not exceed the scope of what a computer check would reveal. A driver’s answer may not be as reliable as a computer check but the time involved is much shorter. And just ‘allowing the officer to ask the question may provide important clues pertaining to safety,’ such as nervous or evasive responses.” United States v. Cone, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 16170 (10th Cir. Aug. 24, 2017).