CA4: D.Ct.’s findings officer could estimate speeds for stop was clearly erroneous

In a rare clearly erroneous finding, the Fourth Circuit finds no support at all for the district court’s [overly solicitous] finding of probable cause. The speeding stop here was without probable cause, and the district court’s conclusion that the officer could estimate speed at 75 in a 70 zone, intentionally not using radar, was clearly erroneous. The finding that the officer was trained to estimate speeds was unsupported by the record. The finding that the officer’s inability to determine distances also made the findings “absurd” because time and distance are required to measure speed. United States v. Sowards, 690 F.3d 583 (4th Cir. 2012):

However, the Fourth Amendment does not allow, and the case law does not support, blanket approval for the proposition that an officer’s visual speed estimate, in and of itself, will always suffice as a basis for probable cause to initiate a traffic stop. Instead, for the purposes of the Fourth Amendment, the question remains one of reasonableness. Critically, and as further explained below, the reasonableness of an officer’s visual speed estimate depends, in the first instance, on whether a vehicle’s speed is estimated to be in significant excess or slight excess of the legal speed limit. If slight, then additional indicia of reliability are necessary to support the reasonableness of the officer’s visual estimate.