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State v. Kreps9/5/2002
reasonable suspicion that the other occupants may be participants in that activity.
Id. at 1182; see also United States v. Silva, 957 F.2d 157, 161 (5th Cir. 1992) ("We agree... that a suspect's companionship with or propinquity to an individual independently suspected of criminal activity is a factor to be considered in assessing the reasonableness of a seizure."); Lewis, 504 S.E.2d at 734 (investigatory stop justified as to driver on following facts: defendant and male passenger in vehicle had just exited abandoned, unlit development known for drug trafficking, late at night; driver tried to evade approaching police vehicle; defendant's vehicle had New Jersey license plates; defendant stopped in front of known drug house; as police were pulling in behind defendant's vehicle, police activated their vehicle's blue light and passenger at same time jumped out and walked away into the yard, distancing himself from the police).
V. Analysis
With these principles in mind, we turn to the record in this case. We must determine whether there were specific and articulable facts, which taken together with rational inferences from those facts afforded Officer Johnson reasonable suspicion that at the time of the stop a substantial possibility existed that criminal conduct had occurred, was occurring, or was about to occur. In making that determination, we consider the circumstances under which the stop was made in light of the totality of the circumstances confronting Officer Johnson, including all information available to the officer at the time he made the decision to stop. We view those circumstances through the eyes of a reasonable and cautious police officer on the scene, guided by his experience and training.
The case is close because the record does not indicate that Kreps was violating any traffic laws or was stopped for that purpose. Additionally, there was no evidence of recent criminal activity in the area, and no evidence that Kreps was in a high-crime area. Nevertheless, we think the following combined factors afforded Officer Johnson reasonable suspicion to believe that criminal conduct was "afoot" at the time of the stop.
The officer testified he first saw Kreps' vehicle at 2:30 a.m.-normally a time when most people would be asleep. There was no traffic on the street, prompting the officer to turn his vehicle around to "check the vehicle out." From the evidence we can reasonably infer the officer was in a marked car. We note there was a curfew in Carter Lake that prohibited individuals under eighteen from being out past 11 p.m.-a circumstance that would lead a reasonable police officer to suspect that persons in the vehicle he was following might be violating the curfew law.
As the officer caught up to the vehicle, it sped up. The officer continued to follow, at which point the vehicle sped up even more. At this point, it appeared to the officer that the vehicle was attempting to lose him in sort of a cat-and-mouse game and he had a difficult time catching up to it. At times, the vehicle was turning corners "relatively faster than normal traffic does." Eventually, the vehicle made a complete circle. All of these factors smack of evasive action and would support a reasonable inference that would allow a reasonable police officer to believe that the occupants were aware of a police vehicle following them. Although these facts do not in themselves suggest reasonable suspicion to support an investigatory stop, there is more.
About fifty yards from the point where the vehicle eventually pulled over to the curb and stopped, the passenger exited the vehicle while it was still moving and ran from the vehicle in between houses. At th
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