Supreme Court Limits Community Care-taking

In State v Moats a three Justice majority has limited the use of community care-taking by law enforcement to consensual use. The 3-2 majority decision is available at:

http://www.tncourts.gov/sites/default/files/moatsjamesopn.pdf

The ramifications are that officers may not use their blue lights if they are checking out a situation in which a person may be in need of help or may be impaired.
Walking up to a stopped vehicle to see what is going on is not a problem. Turning on the blue lights and then walking up to see what is going on means that evidence of any crime discovered in the stopped vehicle will be suppressed!

Moats, an 8th DUI offender, was parked in an empty Bi-Lo parking lot at 2:00 a.m. There were no other vehicles in the lot and the business was closed.

An officer drove past, but noticed the pick up truck had it's lights on and the engine did not appear to be running. She drove on down the road, but circled back 5 minutes later to see the truck in the empty lot with it's lights on.

She pulled in behind the truck, turned on her blue lights and walked up to the truck to check it out. She admitted that she did not have reasonable suspicion that a crime had occurred or was ongoing. She was simply checking on any occupant, since the truck had it's lights on and engine off in an empty lot.

When she arrived at the truck, the driver window was down. She asked the driver if he was okay and he said he was. She saw a beer in the beverage container on the dash, smelled alcohol and discovered the driver was drunk. He would later have a .19 Blood Alcohol Test Result.

In a decision by Chief Justice Wade, the Court ruled that the officer seized Moats when she turned on the blue lights and community care-taking did not justify turning on the blue lights. The Court recognized the this decision like the previous Williams case in 2006 puts officers in a difficult position, but they did not think that the danger created by failing to use blue lights to illuminate a scene or even failing to check to see if someone was dead in the truck was as important as the continuation of our Tennessee Blue Light Special created by our Courts previously.

The dissent notes that we are one of only four States ever to limit community care-taking in this way.
The tone of the dissent written by Justice Clark is noticeably harsh. Read it at:

http://www.tncourts.gov/sites/default/files/moatsjamesdis.pdf

Chief Justice Wade was the Appellate Court Judge who was overturned by the Supreme Court in State v Williams in 2006. He took the opposite position on the issue then.