Unlawful DUI Stops in California

Law enforcement is supposed to have “probably cause” before they pull you over in a traffic stop. They cannot pull over just anybody for no apparent reason or, choose drivers at random to pull over. In order for a police officer to stop you, they must have reasonable cause to believe that you are in violation of some sort of actual crime. Sometimes an unlawful police stop will result in a DUI arrest with subsequent charges filed in court. When an unlawful police stop results in a DUI charge, an experienced Santa Ana DUI attorney can properly defend your constitutional rights in court.

Police officers can’t legally pull you over without sufficient reason for doing so. They must have good cause to believe you are committing a crime. Just because you drive out of a bar parking lot at 1am, does not mean a police officer can automatically pull you over for suspicion of DUI. He or she must have first observed that you were demonstrating either behaviors of driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs or, you must be in violation of a traffic law. Probable cause to pull you over in a traffic stop would include but is not limited to: speeding, swerving in and out of traffic, veering out of your lane, driving too slow for road conditions, running a red light, failure to stop at a stop sign, driving without your headlights on after dark, expired registration, no license plate, ignoring traffic laws, driving down the wrong way on a one way street or any other vehicle code or traffic violation.

Challenging Unlawful DUI Stops

In order to arrest you for drunk driving, the police officer is required by law to have probable cause to pull you over. If the stop was unreasonable, for example if the officer “cherry picked” you after leaving a nightclub or bar, yet you were in no violation of the law, it would be considered unreasonable. If the stop was unreasonable and it led to an unlawful arrest, then evidence collected at the stop can be suppressed with the help of an aggressive DUI attorney. If you were subjected to an unlawful DUI stop, contact a Santa Ana DUI attorney from the Law Offices of Thomas Tears without delay!

Contact a Santa Ana DUI attorney from our firm for a free initial consultation.