COLUMBUS — “That lady is drunk.” A tip from a citizen is enough for a law enforcement officer to pull over a driver suspected of being impaired.
that’s according to a ruling Thursday by the Ohio Supreme Court, which upheld the constitutionality of a woman’s arrest for drunken driving following a tip to a state trooper.
At issue before the court was a 2017 arrest in Hamilton County of a woman whose blood-alcohol level tested at more than twice the legal limit.
Records show an Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper was finishing a crash investigation at a gas station when someone emerged from the store and shouted ‘Hey, you need to stop that vehicle. That lady is drunk!’
The court ruled unanimously to reject arguments by the woman’s attorney that the tip wasn’t enough for an investigation.
The justices cited a 1968 decision U.S. Supreme Court decision in an Ohio case that provides an exception to the Fourth Amendment that allows police officers to stop someone if the officer has reasonable suspicion that the person is about to be engaged in criminal activity.