IA: Parking violation justifies police-citizen encounter

A parking violation justifies a police encounter with the driver. Here, the vehicle was obstructing, and the officer wasn’t obliged to merely leave a parking ticket on the car. The encounter led to an OWI arrest and conviction. State v. Warren, 2021 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 19 (Mar. 5, 2021):

In contrast to the two cases Warren cites, every federal court of appeals that has considered this issue has held that a parking violation, even if punishable only as a civil infraction, is a traffic violation that constitutes probable cause to stop the motorist. See Johnson, 874 F.3d at 573-74 (7th Cir. 2017) (concluding there is no “special rule” distinguishing moving and parking violations and upholding the officer’s seizure of the defendant after witnessing the defendant park illegally); United States v. Choudhry, 461 F.3d 1097, 1101-04 (9th Cir. 2006) (holding an officer’s observation of a parking violation under California’s civil-administrative enforcement provided reasonable suspicion for the officer to seize the vehicle’s occupants), cert. denied, 549 U.S. 1236 (2007); Flores v. City of Palacios, 381 F.3d 391, 402-03, 403 n.9 (5th Cir. 2004) (holding the officer had authority to detain the defendant after observing her park on the wrong side of a two-way street in violation of state law); United States v. Copeland, 321 F.3d 582, 594 (6th Cir. 2002) (“[A]n officer can effect a stop based upon a driver’s failure to comply with Michigan’s parking regulations ….”); see also United States v. Spinner, 475 F.3d 356, 358 (D.C. Cir. 2007) (acknowledging federal circuits “have found no legally meaningful distinction between a parking and a moving violation” for Terry stop purposes, but finding it unnecessary to address the issue). To illustrate, in United States v. Choudhry, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s denial of a motion to suppress evidence obtained during law enforcement’s investigatory traffic stop of a vehicle to enforce a parking violation in California. 461 F.3d at 1101. There, police officers observed a vehicle parked illegally and saw the vehicle’s occupants make “hurried movements” that led the officers to believe the occupants were engaging in possibly illegal activity. Id. at 1098-99. Consequently, the officers turned on their emergency vehicle lights and seized the occupants for investigatory purposes. Id.

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