The Fourth Circuit recently decided United States v. Sowards, an interesting case about a traffic stop. The case arose when an experienced traffic enforcement officer stopped the defendant on I-77 near Charlotte. The basis for the stop was the officer’s visual estimate that the defendant was driving 75 m.p.h. in a 70 m.p.h. zone. During the stop, the officer had a drug dog sniff the vehicle. The dog alerted, and the officer found 10 kilograms of cocaine in the car. Charged with federal drug crimes, the defendant moved to suppress, arguing that the officer “lacked probable cause to initiate the traffic stop.” At the suppression hearing, the officer testified that he was certified in the use of radar. . . . As a condition of obtaining . . . certification, [he] was required to visually estimate the speed of twelve separate vehicles and then have his visual speed estimates verified with radar. . . . [His] visual speed estimates could not vary from the radar by greater than a total of 42[] mph for all twelve vehicles combined. . . . [F]or any one vehicle, his visual speed estimate could have been off by as much as 12 mph, so long as he did not exceed the 42 mph total for all twelve vehicles combined. The officer testified that he did not use any particular technique to estimate speed, but relied on his training and experience. He also acknowledged that he did not verify his estimate of the defendant’s speed using [...]
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