KS: (1) Close questions of reasonable suspicion defer to the officer’s experience, and (2) state cannot manipulate a knock and talk for plain view

Traffic stop was valid, and it was properly extended by reasonable suspicion and consent. Close questions of reasonable suspicion go to the officer’s experience. State v. Moore, 154 P.3d 1 (Kan. 2007):

We emphasize that because whether reasonable suspicion exists depends upon the totality of the circumstances, a case-by-case evaluation is required. See DeMarco, 263 Kan. at 735. Accordingly, a broad reading of our opinion today is expressly discouraged. We do not advocate a total, or substantial, deference to law enforcement’s opinion concerning the presence of reasonable suspicion. The officers may possess nothing more than an “inchoate and unparticularized suspicion” or “hunch” of criminal activity. See Illinois v. Wardlow, 528 U.S. 119, 123, 145 L. Ed. 2d 570, 120 S. Ct. 673 (2000). Such a level of deference would be an abdication of our role to make a de novo determination of reasonable suspicion. But, in this close case, we give appropriate deference to the opinions of a particular law enforcement officer on the scene who, with thousands of traffic stops, is highly experienced in roadside searches and seizures and determinations of reasonable suspicion.

The state cannot manipulate a knock-and-talk to enter rural premises and make a purported “plain view” seizure of a trash bag in the yard 100′ from the road. State v. Fisher, 154 P.3d 455 (Kan. 2007):

We specifically disapprove of any State attempt to “piggyback,” i.e., to observe an object in open view from off the premises, to use knock and-in these cases, unsuccessful-talk for justified entry onto the premises, and then assert plain view while on the premises as a legal basis to seize the identical object that had been observed earlier. Such piggybacking under these facts would smear the careful distinctions drawn by the Horton Court between the right to merely observe an object (here, from off the premises) and the right to seize that object (on the premises). From a practical standpoint, this piggyback practice would grant law enforcement the right to seize virtually any object initially observed from a distance and subsequently located within plain view of a residential doorway by an officer purposely looking for that identical object.

An additional reason for us to reject the State’s request to apply the plain view doctrine for justification of the seizure is that Jager’s premises search and seizure of the bag exceeded the scope of his justified intrusion. This rejection applies whether the State were to contend that the off-highway observation of the bag alone, the off-site smell of ether alone, the previous citizens’ tips alone, or some combinations thereof, justified the knock and talk.