Ann Arbor DUI Defense - 15th District Court - Judge Burke
In Ann Arbor, I handle a lot of cases where the basis of a traffic stop originates from a 911 caller. In Michigan, an anonymous tip by itself cannot create the reasonable suspicion necessary for a stop, but if the officers see for themselves that part of the information in an anonymous tip is true, then the officers may reasonably rely on it.
For example - if the 911 caller says there is an erratic driver on the roads or someone is driving at night without their lights, and the police officer sees the same thing, he can make a traffic stop. The Michigan Supreme Court held that citizen-informants reporting suspicious activities that they have personally observed should be deemed inherently reliable “when the information is sufficiently detailed and is corroborated within a reasonable period of time by the officers’ own observations.” Michigan courts have deemed “identified citizens and police officers to be presumptively reliable.”
This is where the 911 audio tapes are so important, because we will be able to hear what the 911 tip was, and then review the video/police report to see what the officer observed.
It's a completely different set of considerations when the 911 caller is the only witness to the "driving" and the police only become involved once there is no longer driving. In this circumstance, if the 911 caller is the only person to see the bad driving, and the police did not see it for themselves, the case could be dismissed, because the police did not have the reasonable suspicion to conduct their DUI investigation.
For example - if the 911 caller says there is an erratic driver on the roads or someone is driving at night without their lights, and the police officer sees the same thing, he can make a traffic stop. The Michigan Supreme Court held that citizen-informants reporting suspicious activities that they have personally observed should be deemed inherently reliable “when the information is sufficiently detailed and is corroborated within a reasonable period of time by the officers’ own observations.” Michigan courts have deemed “identified citizens and police officers to be presumptively reliable.”
This is where the 911 audio tapes are so important, because we will be able to hear what the 911 tip was, and then review the video/police report to see what the officer observed.
It's a completely different set of considerations when the 911 caller is the only witness to the "driving" and the police only become involved once there is no longer driving. In this circumstance, if the 911 caller is the only person to see the bad driving, and the police did not see it for themselves, the case could be dismissed, because the police did not have the reasonable suspicion to conduct their DUI investigation.
