Brown v. State (2008)

In Brown v. State, 182 P.3d 624 (Alaska App. 2008) the Court discussed a rule that would limit the authority of the police to ask motorists to consent to searches during typical traffic stops. Under this proposed rule, the police would be prohibited from asking motorists to consent to a search of their person, their vehicle, or their belongings if the proposed search was "unrelated to the basis for the stop and ... not otherwise supported by a reasonable suspicion of criminality." The facts of Brown did not require us to decide whether to adopt this rule for all traffic stops.