California Court Clarifies Rules on Prolonged and Pretextual Traffic Stops

• Pretextual Traffic Stops
• Prolonged Traffic Stops
• The Mission of a Traffic Stop
• California Vehicle Code § 2806.5 

The duration of a traffic stop is measured from the time the stop is made until the subject is either released or a reasonable suspicion of other criminal activity is developed, justifying a continued detention, whichever occurs first.  That point in time when a violation is first observed is irrelevant when measuring the duration of a traffic stop.  California Vehicle Code § 2806.5 does not make illegal a pretextual traffic stop, but rather only requires that an officer inform the detainee of the reasons for the stop and document the same in later reports. 

On March 31, 2023, at approximately 10:00 p.m., Santa Rosa Police Officer Brett Wright and his partner, Officer Dane Schindler, observed defendant Adrian Osvaldo Valle pumping gas into his vehicle at a local gas station.  Officer Wright (being a member of Santa Rosa Police Department’s Special Enforcement Team) recognized defendant as an active gang member, and knew that the gang he belonged to (a subset of the Sureño gang) was currently feuding at the time with another subset of that same gang.  He also noticed that defendant was missing the front license plate on his car; a violation of Veh. ....