Broken Tail Light Research Paper

Abstract. Imagine, you are a police officer. You start your shift with a routine vehicle stop with what appears to be a broken tail light. Two hours later you are writing a report that includes; there was no broken tail light, only a taillight that is covered with colored tape. During the stop this car also was in question if it had anything to do with anyrecent previous crimes involving the death of an officer. This was not the case either. However, instead of letting the driver go, as there is no reason to detain her any further, the driver is unconscious in the hospital and upon waking will be arrested for having drugs and a gun in her vehicle that was found after the crash into the telephone pole. Mistakes like this do not have to
His night started out with the officer pulling over an older model Pontiac with a broken tail light that had tape over it. The law requires a vehicle to have headlights illuminated one-half hour after sunset. The officer saw the broken taillight, and determined there was a violation of the light law and pulled the driver over. The officer was in his right to pull this vehicle over due to the laws of “every motor vehicle shall be equipped with two (2) red tail lamps and, two (2) red stoplights on the rear of the vehicle. Each lamp and stoplight shall be in good condition and operational.
Officer Smith now had reasonable grounds to believe the driver could be armed and dangerous, and it was necessary for the protection of him and others to take swift measures to discover the threat of harm if the driver had a weapon. The law of search and seizure is constantly evolving and its focus remains to be a very difficult balance between protecting the rights of citizens to be free from unreasonable searches and protecting the safety of our police officers. However, Officer Smith unsure if this vehicle had been the vehicle, which had recently been part of a crime, he asked the driver to get out of her car with her hands up and to turn around and face her car with her arms on top of the car. He explained he was going to do a pat down for any weapons she may have on her. After completing, the pat down and no weapons were found so she was asked to get back in the car. At that time officer, Smith requested a copy of her driver’s license and registration. Instead of handing over the information to Officer Smith, the driver took off and fled from the officer. Now this situation involves exigent circumstances which then Officer Smith needed to do what is reasonably necessary. This was now an emergency, which could potentially be dangerous as well as putting others in a serious and imminent dangerous