Whether the police officer had reasonable suspicion to perform an investigatory stop (a Terry stop) of the defendant’s vehicle; Terry v. Ohio; People v. Barbarich; People v. LoCicero (After Remand); People v. Oliver; People v. Tooks; People v. Estabrooks; Principle that the state’s interest in preventing drunk driving is strong; Michigan Dep’t of State Police v. Sitz; Principle that erratic driving can give rise to a reasonable suspicion of unlawful intoxication so as to justify an investigatory stop; People v. Christie

The court held that, under the totality of the circumstances, the police had reasonable suspicion to conduct an investigative stop of the defendant’s vehicle even if they did not have probable cause to make an arrest at that time. He was convicted of carrying a concealed weapon and operating a motor vehicle with a high blood alcohol content, and was sentenced to concurrent terms of 365 days in jail for both convictions. On appeal, the court rejected his argument that the police officer who stopped him did not have the requisite reasonable suspicion to do so and thus, the stop was illegal and all evidence obtained from it should have been suppressed. “The gravamen of defendant’s argument is that at the time of the traffic stop, neither officer involved had personally and directly observed defendant either consuming alcohol or driving in an erratic, unsafe, or improper manner; and the information the officer did have came from unreliable informants.” Indeed, the officer “expressly stated that he “did so entirely on information he had received from the dispatcher. Initially, however, there is no absolute legal prohibition against effectuating a traffic stop on the basis of reports from informants, and we are unpersuaded that the reports provided to the officer here were insufficiently reliable.” The court noted that it was not necessary for the witnesses “to observe defendant drinking to perceive that he was” intoxicated, and “it was not necessary for officers to personally observe defendant consuming alcohol or driving erratically.” Affirmed.