On the General Discussion Board, I posted the following response to a thread on a civilian's duty to respond to a request for i.d., etc.

"I was about to do a plea for a client in a Criminal District Court in Dallas, Texas, not long ago, and the Assistant D.A., and I were sitting through a hearing in another criminal matter.

In that case, a Dallas Police Officer was sitting at a stop light near downtown at about 5:00, AM, when a car made a left hand turn in front of the policeman. The car was obeying all traffic laws, not being driven erratically, or anything else, according to the officer's testimony.

Nevertheless, the policeman typed the license plate number of the vehicle into his patrol car's computer, and, we couldn't figure out what, but something came up on the screen that gave rise to some suspicion on the policeman's part, and he hooked a louie, and stopped the car. Bust ensued.

I asked the Ass't DA if the officer wasn't conducting a 'search' without probable cause when he typed the license number into the computer, he said no, that was routine!

Routine or not, that was a 'search' IMHO. If I handled more criminal cases, I would probably know the answer, but I don't (Thank God).

Do any LEOs or criminal attorneys out there know if that sort of license plate search on a vehicle that is being driven safely and without any 'suspicious' factors, is proper or not?

Eric The(CivilLawOnly)Hun[>]:)]

This was asked and answered numerous times in your original thread.  Apparently different states have different rules in reference to officers randomly running plates. In my state it's not authorized.