Reasonable Suspicion & Probable Cause
The laws in North Carolina regarding stopping a vehicle for a motor vehicle violation or suspicion of driving while impaired is pretty complicated, to be frank. There are different standards where the courts will review the facts and the circumstances of the case. In the most basic terms there is something you may have heard of before called reasonable suspicion. Reasonable suspicion has traditionally been something that involved an officer observing some activity. That doesn't necessarily break the law but the officer believes that criminal activity is “afoot”. That’s somewhat complicated but maybe a good example would be weaving within your lane of travel, driving substantially below the speed limit, or driving around with your blinker on and you’re not really turning. Those may be suspicious activities of impaired driving.
Now probable cause was the term that we use where if you broke the law. Whether if it was a minor infraction, a criminal citation (where you actually sped above the speed limit or you actually crossed the center line or you drove recklessly), the officer had probable cause or saw one of those events they can pull you over for no other reason other than that. The law became blurred within the last few years when the courts somewhat got rid of that delineation and that distinction. Now everything is versed in the term of reasonable suspicion. Courts review two things: first if you break the law or you break a citation clearly a police officer can pull you over. If there's something else going where you have not broken the law, the officer is going to have present sufficient facts in courts to convince the judge that that manner in which you were driving was suspicious. It’s very complicated and I encourage you to come in and talk to me. We’ll go over the individual facts of your case to determine what standard we’re actually applying in court and what standard is actually appropriate for your individual case.
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