First of two parts.
Two days after the Supreme Court issued a widely criticized ruling that allows police to make stops without overt cause, the chief of Culver City’s Police Dept. cautiously is working toward a comprehensive understanding of the new interpretation.
“In its simplest form,” said Scott Bixby, “an unreasonable stop does not prevent an officer from making an arrest for a warrant. And if an arrest is made, the suspect is subject to search.”
The chief concluded that “obviously, we need to make sure we are not abusing this ruling and make stops in good faith.”
He said flatly that the new legal look at stops by police does not imperil the public or turn communities into police states.
Since Monday’s 5-3 Supreme Court verdict, fears have been galloping the length of the country that police everywhere now have been given carte blanche to make stops without a speck of suspicion – just because.
Not to worry in Culver City, says low-key Chief Bixby. No changes in the department’s stop policy will be made in the near term, and possibly not at all.
When complex scenarios arise, it has been department policy to await opinions by the city attorney’s office.
Late yesterday, the office of County Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey sent out a one-sentence interpretation that is not likely to mollify critics:
“In the absence of evidence of flagrant police misconduct, discovery of an outstanding arrest warrant during an unjustifiable detention attenuates the taint of the unreasonable detention, so that evidence discovered in a search incident to arrest on that warrant is admissible.”
(To be continued)
