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Can the Police Pull Me Over Based on an Anonymous Tip?

During your initial interview with a Sacramento DUI defense attorney, he will attempt to determine the legality of the officer’s traffic stop. The reason for this is simple: if the officer’s did not have a valid reason for pulling you over, any charges you received from the stop are invalid.

This matter can become very complex when you were pulled over because of an anonymous tip. The legality of traffic stops based on anonymous tips is still ambiguous, as illustrated by the following court cases:

In Texas, a police officer pulled over a red pick-up truck after receiving an anonymous tip. The tip contained only three pieces of information: that the truck was red, that the truck was traveling in the wrong lane, and that the truck was headed north. The court found the traffic stop to be illegal because the police officer did not personally witness any actual wrongdoing on the part of the driver when he pulled over the vehicle.

In Georgia, the court found an anonymous tip to be insufficient grounds for a traffic stop because there was no reason for the police officer to think that the tip was reliable. The anonymous tipster gave no reason how he would know about the crimes the defendant was allegedly committing.

The legality of a traffic stop is an important and sometimes difficult legal question and you will need an experienced attorney to deal with it. Call today for an initial consultation from experienced Sacramento DUI defense attorney Param Pabla.

Client Reviews
★★★★★
“Mr. Pabla represented me with my DUI case. He has excellent communication skills and always kept me informed. Mr. Pabla made sure I understood the process and my rights. He eased my mind through a very stressful situation. I highly recommend Mr. Pabla.” Gurpreet
★★★★★
“I am so happy with the service that I received from Param S. Pabla. Jarrett did a great job solving my legal issue and I can’t recommend him enough! He was able to do everything quickly, painlessly, and was ALWAYS available to talk when I needed him. If I ever need help again, I will definitely use him!" Boris
★★★★★
“Param was excellent in my court case of failure to stop at a stop sign. The officer could not see clearly because he was too far away. The officer insisted he could and said he had video but could not produce it at the trial. The officer then asked if he could suspend the trial to go get the video but the judge said he should have had plenty of time to get the video ready beforehand. Needless to say, the judge ruled in my favor and dismissed the case which enraged the officer. Pabla Param’s defense and cross examination skills were excellent and paramount in having the case dismissed. Highly recommended.” T.C.
★★★★★
“My husband and I needed to update everything -family trust, will, medical stuff. Param was really patient -answering all my questions -even when I asked them twice. He wanted to be sure I understood everything we were doing. All docs were sent to us so we could go through them on our own time before anything was finalized. I also liked when we were looking at medical stuff that he had a conversation with me about what I wanted and pointed out some things I didn’t think of.” Debbie