florida traffic stop question

[floridacop Forum Member Find all posts View Profile Close floridacop]

florida traffic officer here... scenario:

behind a car at the red light... randomly run the tag in front of me everything's 10-4... run the registered owner (white female) who comes up with a warrant out of my city... traffic stop leads me to asking her if she's the owner, she says yes and i cuff her and off she goes to jail...

i know randomly running a tag is ok per case law, but does anyone know specific law about a stop for an investigation into the registered owner i.e. warrant hit, suspended dl

[madchiken Relocation Expert Find all posts View Profile Close madchiken]

Some CAD/MDT's do it automatically. When you run the tag it also runs the RO.

[barr151 Forum Member Find all posts View Profile Close barr151]

Yes, it is ok to run the owner for warrants. If the owner comes back with a hit, then yes you can stop the vehicle to further investigate if the driver is in deed the owner. If you realize that the driver is not the owner, then clear the driver and release. Now if the owner comes back with a hit and the description for the owner is a white male and the driver is a black female, then you may have some explaining to do.

[StudChris Forum Member Find all posts View Profile Close StudChris]

As long as the description matches (or you can articulate why you couldn't get a description) you are good to go on the stop. Where you'll sometimes run into a problem sometimes is when you make the stop, the driver isn't the owner, but you see something else going on (DUI, drugs, DWLSR, whatever). You're still good for the arrest, but you may have a challenge in court.

[shea193 Forum Member Find all posts View Profile Close shea193]

As long as the description matches (or you can articulate why you couldn't get a description) you are good to go on the stop. Where you'll sometimes run into a problem sometimes is when you make the stop, the driver isn't the owner, but you see something else going on (DUI, drugs, DWLSR, whatever). You're still good for the arrest, but you may have a challenge in court.

100% correct. the only problem that you may run into is if it is not the owner, you have no PC or RS to run the drivers DL unless you see another crime (DUI, drugs, DWLSR).