The Law Behind Anonymous DUI Tipsters and Traffic Stops

Navarette followed the California Supreme Court’s decision in People v. Wells (2006) 38 Cal.App.4th 1078. In Wells, the dispatcher broadcasted “a possibly intoxicated driver ‘weaving all over the roadway,’” and described the vehicle as an “80s model blue van traveling northbound on Highway 99 at Airport Drive.” The officer, who was heading southbound 3 to 4 miles away from that location when he got the call, positioned himself on the shoulder of northbound Highway 99. “Two or three minutes” later he saw a blue van traveling approximately 50 miles per hour. He made an enforcement stop without independently observing any unusual, suspicious, or illegal driving. Citing “the grave risks posed by an intoxicated highway driver,” Wells held that a brief, investigatory stop was justified under the circumstances even though the tip was treated as anonymous. While approving a lower court ruling in Lowry v. Gutierrez (2005) 129 Cal.App.4th 926, and following a non-binding federal opinion in United States v. Wheat (8th Cir. 2001), 278 F.3d 722, the court declared that “there is a sound and logical distinction between the vehicle stop in the present case and the frisk found unconstitutional in [Florida v. J.L., (2000) 529 U.S. 266 (anonymous tip reporting a young, African American man in a plaid shirt, standing at a particular bus stop and carrying a gun)]. Seizing on J.L.’s statement that there may be “circumstances under which the danger alleged in an anonymous tip might be so great as to justify a search even without a showing of reliability...[such as a report] of a person carrying a bomb...,” J.L., at 273-274, the Wells Court found that a “drunk driver is not at all unlike a bomb, and a mobile one at that [citing the Vermont Supreme Court in State v. Boyea (2000) 765 A.2d 862, 867-868].” As in Wheat, the court further found that the tip’s lack of “predictive information” was not critical to determining its reliability. It also cited Michigan Department of State Police v. Sitz (1990) 496 U.S. 444, 455, for the proposition that the high court has sanctioned the “stopping of all drivers to investigate possible drunk driving despite any articulable facts indicating an immediate risk of harm.”

The Wells Court set forth three requirements that must be met for an anonymous tip to provide reasonable suspicion to justify a DUI traffic stop, and they closely parallel the factors found sufficient in Navarette:

1. First, the tipster must furnish sufficient identifying information regarding the vehicle and its location, so the officer and reviewing courts may be reasonably sure the vehicle stopped is the one identified by the caller.
2. Second, the tip should indicate the caller had actually witnessed a contemporaneous traffic violation that compels an immediate stop, rather than merely speculating or surmising unlawful activity.
3. Third, at least the “innocent details” of the tip must be corroborated by the officers. (See: Wells, at 1085-1086).