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Edwards v. State6/19/2001
driver's license and registration is something that Prouse itself authorizes when it occurs at a fixed site and to all vehicles of a specific category, as opposed to random stops by roving patrols of vehicles chosen at the officers' discretion. The Supreme Court did not question that at roadside truck weigh-stations and inspection checkpoints, "some vehicles may be subject to further detention for safety and regulatory inspection than are others." Prouse, 440 U.S. at 663 n. 26.
. Secondly, we find that if weigh station officials through their quick glance as a truck was being weighed must acquire probable cause to believe that there are defects in basic safety items such as tires , mud flaps, and other features, this would prevent acceptable results from being obtained. Delaying the vehicle and allowing a closer look is necessary. Moreover, if randomness is prohibited the manpower needs would be greatly increased, which might well lead to no inspections occurring except for probable cause arising from the quick glance.
. Thirdly, we must decide whether requiring the driver to delay for the additional time necessary for a walk-around inspection is a "relatively limited invasion" of privacy. This is not a full vehicle search, with cargo being shifted or even removed, with the cab being closely examined, or any meaningful intrusion other than the inconvenience of the driver's having to wait somewhat longer at the weigh station. With one exception, what the officer saw were the same things any bystander would have seen whenever the vehicle was in a stationary position being refueled at a truck stop or paused at a rest stop. The exception was the officer's stepping up on a running board and opening the door to see the vehicle inspection number. Considering the safety concerns that apply if a commercial truck is not what its driver purports it to be, suggesting theft or some other illegal conduct, we find this a relatively limited and necessary invasion.
. Prouse identified a State's "vital interest in ensuring that only those qualified to do so are permitted to operate motor vehicles, that these vehicles are fit for safe operation, and hence that licensing, registration, and vehicle inspection requirements are being observed." Delaware v. Prouse, 440 U.S. at 658. Delaware's specific measure of stopping all kinds of motorists randomly was found not sufficiently to further those aims. "This kind of standardless and unconstrained discretion is the evil the Court has discerned when in previous cases it has insisted that the discretion of the official in the field be circumscribed, at least to some extent. . . . . Camara v. Municipal Court, 387 U.S., at 532-533." Prouse, 440 U.S. at 661. Prouse then distinguished weigh station stops of commercial trucks and found that its holding was irrelevant to that analysis. Id. at 663 n. 26.
. For the very reasons that random stops were not justified in Prouse, we find them to be fully justified here once all commercial trucks have been required to undertake the initial stop to be weighed. We find that the health and safety concerns regarding large commercial vehicles are immense, individualized suspicions would not be effective, and the additional intrusion of the walk-around inspection is limited. See Camara, 387 U.S. at 537.
. This was the analysis that upheld Kansas's random stopping of commercial trucks on the highway for safety inspections. United States v. Burch, 153 F.3d 1140, 1141 (10th Cir. 1998) (state trooper randomly stopping commercial trucks for inspection). Random safety inspections of commercial motor vehicles have long been a recognized tool for highway safety:
We begin by accepting as substa
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