State v. Fitzpatrick

In State v. Fitzpatrick 152 Ohio App.3d 122, 786 N.E.2d 942, 2003 Ohio 1405, the Sixth District came to the opposite conclusion where an officer outside his jurisdiction merely observed the defendant's vehicle "moving kind of slow." In that case, there was no testimony suggesting that the defendant's manner of driving presented a danger to other motorists. The officer had no reasonable suspicion of criminal activity on behalf of the defendant until after he had left his jurisdiction and discovered that defendant was in possession of illegal plates. Because this violation did not present an imminent safety danger to other motorists, the Sixth District could see no reason why the officer could not have alerted the police with jurisdictional authority to the general location of the vehicle so that they could make the stop. The court explained: "We conclude that the government's interest in making an extraterritorial stop and arrest for a fourth-degree-misdemeanor violation is minimal and outweighed by the serious intrusion upon a person's liberty and privacy that necessarily arises out of a stop and arrest. Therefore, Officer Snow's action in making an extraterritorial stop of appellant's vehicle violates the reasonableness requirement of the Fourth Amendment. Officer Snow's statutory violation in this case does require suppression of all evidence flowing from the stop." Id. at 126, 786 N.E.2d 942.