{"id":62582,"date":"2025-12-26T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=62582"},"modified":"2025-12-25T21:23:02","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T02:23:02","slug":"pa-officer-cant-impound-a-car-just-to-avoid-state-automobile-exception","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=62582","title":{"rendered":"PA: Officer can&#8217;t impound a car just to avoid state automobile exception"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Pennsylvania\u2019s automobile exception is more stringent than the Fourth Amendment requiring exigency. The state can\u2019t end run a refusal to consent by impounding a car to get into it. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pacourts.us\/assets\/opinions\/Superior\/out\/J-S40037-25o%20-%20106622372340952864.pdf?cb=1\">Commonwealth v. Rosario<\/a>, 2025 PA Super 286 (Dec. 23, 2025).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cFirst, the stop was supported by reasonable suspicion based on the information relayed through dispatch and the officers&#8217; own observations. The complainant described a contemporaneous assault with a gun and provided distinctive identifying information (an orange Hyundai Accent hatchback) together with information about the location and general direction-of-travel. Within minutes and in close proximity of the reported assault, Sergeant Ayres encountered a vehicle matching that distinctive description. Any imperfections in the radio description, including the absence of a detailed \u2018flash\u2019 and the fact that the complainant did not describe all occupants, did not undermine reasonable suspicion given the vehicle&#8217;s unique color, temporal proximity, and corroboration.\u201d United States v. Thomas, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 265262 (E.D. Pa. Dec. 23, 2025).*<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pennsylvania\u2019s automobile exception is more stringent than the Fourth Amendment requiring exigency. The state can\u2019t end run a refusal to consent by impounding a car to get into it. Commonwealth v. Rosario, 2025 PA Super 286 (Dec. 23, 2025). \u201cFirst, &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=62582\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-automobile-exception","category-reasonable-suspicion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62582"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62583,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62582\/revisions\/62583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}