AIR FRESHENERS HANGING FROM REAR-VIEW MIRROR PROVIDED PROBABLE CAUSE JUSTIFYING VEHICLE STOP.

The Fourth Department, in the context of upholding the revocation of petitioner’s license for refusing to submit to a chemical blood alcohol test, determined the arresting officer had probable cause to believe petitioner had committed a traffic offense, and therefore the vehicle-stop was valid. The basis of the stop was the officer’s observation of air fresheners hanging three or four inches below the rear-view mirror:

 

… [P]olice stops of automobiles in this State are legal only pursuant to routine, nonpretextual traffic checks to enforce traffic regulations or when there exists at least a reasonable suspicion that the driver or occupants of the vehicle have committed, are committing, or are about to commit a crime’ . . . [,] or where the police have probable cause to believe that the driver . . . has committed a traffic violation’ ” … . …[P]robable cause . . . does not require proof sufficient to warrant a conviction beyond a reasonable doubt but merely information sufficient to support a reasonable belief that an offense has been or is being committed’ ” … . Here, the record establishes that the officer had probable cause to believe that petitioner was violating Vehicle and Traffic Law § 375 (30) inasmuch as the officer testified that he observed objects measuring approximately four inches wide—later identified as air fresheners—hanging three or four inches below the rearview mirror, and that those objects may have obstructed petitioner’s view through the windshield … . Matter of Deveines v New York State Dept. of Motor Vehs. Appeals Bd., 2016 NY Slip Op 01074, 4th Dept 2-11-16

 

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