Ninth Circuit Limits High-Risk Vehicle Stops: New Potential Liability Risks for Police

• Auto theft 
• High-risk vehicle traffic stops and potential civil liability 
• Qualified Immunity
• Civil Liability

Having cause to believe a vehicle is stolen, or even that it is “cold-plated” (i.e., using a license plate not assigned to that vehicle), is insufficient by itself to justify subjecting the vehicle’s occupants to a high-risk felony vehicle stop (i.e., a “hot-stop”) absent an articulable reason to believe the occupants are armed or otherwise dangerous. Officers are subject to potential civil liability for conducting a high-risk vehicle stop based upon nothing more than a reasonable suspicion (or even probable cause) that the vehicle was stolen, absent a reason to believe the occupants are armed and/or dangerous. 

On June 16, 2019, Hasmik Chinaryan, while innocently driving home from a family Father’s Day celebration with her teenage daughter and a friend in the car, suddenly became the target of a high-risk felony traffic stop by a dozen Los Angeles Police Department officers plus a helicopter unit. The officers were acting upon information that a black Chevrolet Suburban limousine had been stolen three days earlier. The stolen Suburban was equipped with a “LoJack device.” The day after it was stolen, LAPD’s Foothill Division detected a signal from that device. Two patrol officers located the LoJack signal’s approximate source, which the court noted are not as accurate as GPS. The officers, however, were confident that the signal was originating from within a specific two or three businesses in an industrial area on Glenoaks Boulevard, which was known to have many “chop shops,” where stolen vehicles are taken apart and sold for parts. But because it was a weekend and the businesses were closed, they decided to wait until Monday the 16th to continue the investigation.  

The car Chinaryan was driving on the 16th was a black Suburban limousine which, although three years newer (2018 vs. 2015) than the stolen Suburban, looked very similar. Chinaryan in her Suburban was spotted by a police sergeant about half a mile from where the stolen Suburban’s LoJack signal had been detected the day before. Thinking, “What are the ....