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 ....