By Paul Queary, The Associated Press
Olympia, Wash. (AP) -- Police officers can’t ask passengers for identification during a traffic stop without some reason to suspect criminal activity, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
In 6-3 ruling, the court found that the practice violates the state Constitution’s privacy protections.
“This is not to imply that officers may not engage passengers in conversation,” Chief Justice Gerry Alexander wrote for the majority.” However, once the interaction develops into an investigation, it runs afoul of our state constitution unless there is justification for the intrusion into the passenger’s private affairs.”
The ruling overturns the Court of Appeals in two separate cases from 1999. In one, a Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy recognized James Rankin as a man he had arrested a month earlier and asked for his ID. The deputy used the license to discover an outstanding warrant for Rankin. As he arrested Rankin, the officer found an ounce of methamphetamine, and Rankin was charged with possession. A Snohomish County Superior Court judge suppressed the evidence and dismissed the charge, but the Court of Appeals reversed that decision.
In the other case, a Tukwila police officer asked Kevin Staab to produce his driver’s license. As Staab reached into his shirt pocket, a clear plastic bag of cocaine fell out. The officer arrested him and he was later convicted on a drug charge, a conviction that was upheld by the Court of Appeals.
Tom Conom, who argued as a friend of the court for the Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said the Supreme Court decision bucks a trend of increasing search powers during traffic stops.
“Over the years, there’s been less and less privacy accorded to the folks in automobiles,” Conom said. “For our Supreme Court in this day and age to stand up for the rights of vehicle passengers, it’s just terrific.”
The decision will likely hamper police and prosecutors around the state, said Tom McBride, executive secretary of the Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys.
“The factual scenario happens a lot,” McBride said. “A lot of warrants get served because of traffic stops.”
McBride also said the ruling might make some traffic stops more dangerous for officers.
“Sometimes asking people who they are, those are ways of keeping the situation under control,” McBride said.
Justices Faith Ireland, Barbara Madsen and Bobbe Bridge dissented, agreeing with prosecutors’ contention that police asked rather than demanded to see ID in both cases, and the passengers could have refused.
Justices Charles Johnson, Richard Sanders, Susan Owens, Tom Chambers and Mary Fairhurst voted with Alexander in the majority.
The case is State of Washington v. James Bruce Rankin and Washington v. Kevin D. Staab, No. 72509-8.