Q. Can the police stop and investigate a person or vehicle on information received from an Anonymous telephone call?

A. No! An anonymous tip (information given to the police from someone who refuses or neglects to identify themselves) is generally insufficient to justify a temporary detention for investigation by the police. The Fourth Amendment (US Constitution) prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures by the police and this extends to brief investigatory stops of people or vehicles. Without anything more, an anonymous tip by a citizen is presumed to be unreliable.

Fortunately, the police cannot rely on a mere hunch or guess that criminal activity is occurring. However, after receiving an anonymous tip, if the police witness additional corroborating behavior that raises a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity, they may then make an investigatory stop of a person or vehicle.

In a recent case, the police received a tip about a person selling drugs but that information by itself was insufficient for the police to temporarily detain the suspect. However, once they arrived on the scene and saw the conduct that they believed, based on their training and experience, was a drug transaction (confirming the criminal conduct alleged in the anonymous telephone call) there was sufficient legal justification to make a temporary detention of the suspect.

Q. A police officer saw my passenger flicking cigarette ashes out the window while we were waiting for a red light. He pulled us over and I was arrested for a DUI. Can he legally stop us for flicking ashes out the window?

A. Probably not. Although litter is something we all want to constantly avoid for obvious reasons, there is no specific state law (statute) which prohibits all forms of litter. VC (Vehicle Code)- 38320 and VC-23112 prevent the throwing of garbage from a vehicle but the ashes from a cigarette would not qualify under that law.

Further, VC-23111 and the nearly identical H&S- 3002 prohibit throwing cigarettes, cigars, matches or any flaming or glowing substances from your car. Fortunately for you, your attorney should be able to establish, through the filing of a Motion to Suppress, that a cigarette ash does not qualify as either a cigarette, or a lighted, flaming or glowing substance. In summary, if the police officer exceeded his authority and stopped you for an act which does not constitute a crime, any and all evidence which he discovered as a result of the stopping of your car can and should be thrown out of court. This evidence includes the police officer's observations of your behavior, the results of any field sobriety tests including a portable breath test, the results of any blood or breath test taken at the police station, etc.