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CA10: Direction to turn off engine and close window was reasonable

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

During a valid traffic stop, telling the driver to close the window and shut off the engine before the dog sniff was reasonable here and did not make it more of a seizure. United States v. Pina, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 14412 (10th Cir. July 14, 2010) (unpublished)*: Pina and Lajara contend a different result is warranted here because Owen asked Lajara to close the window and turn off the vehicle before he walked his dog around the vehicle. We disagree. While we recognize the possibility an officer's instruction to close a window or turn off an engine could be seen as an unreasonable exercise of dominion and control in some circumstances, 4 we agree with the district court that these requests were reasonable here. As the court explained: "There's no reason for that car to be running while this search is going on with a passenger inside the car...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on July 17, 2010 (boomark / email).