The court of appeals just decided another case on the community caretaking doctrine. It’s the fourth published community caretaking case in the last five years, and there have been a couple of unpublished ones as well. The activity in the appellate division suggests that the doctrine is being invoked much more frequently in the trial courts. This post explains the new case and provides a quick refresher on the older ones. State v. Brown. The new case is State v. Brown, __ N.C. App. __, __ S.E.2d __, 2019 WL 1915374 (April 16, 2019). It arose in the wee hours of a Saturday morning. An Alexander County deputy was standing outside his patrol car in the parking lot of a closed gas station. The deputy saw a vehicle come down an adjoining road. He “heard yelling from inside the vehicle,” including “the words ‘mother fucker.’” Concerned that the occupants of the vehicle might be in an argument that could involve domestic violence, the deputy stopped the vehicle. He found no evidence of domestic violence, but he determined that the driver of the vehicle was impaired and so arrested him for DWI. The driver moved to suppress, arguing that the stop was unlawful and that all evidence of impairment should therefore be suppressed. A superior court judge disagreed, finding the stop justified under the community caretaking doctrine, which allows officers to conduct certain warrantless searches and seizures intended to protect the public rather than to gather evidence of criminal activity. The court [...]
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