Page 28 - TPA Journal November-December 2018
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Officer Leal testified to the following at a hearing insurance policy” or other means such a surety
on the motion to suppress: Officer Leal has in the bond, a deposit, or self-insurance. Tex. Transp.
past “performed multiple traffic stops for Code Ann. § 601.051. Violating this statute is a
vehicles not having insurance” and was familiar misdemeanor. At issue in this case is whether
with the Texas law requiring drivers to have Officer Leal had reasonable suspicion that Broca-
liability insurance. Leal did not stop the vehicle Martinez was in violation of this statute.
because of Broca-Martinez’s undocumented When a vehicle is stopped, the officer “must have
status—a fact he did not know—but because he a particularized and objective basis for suspecting
believed Broca-Martinez was uninsured. He the particular person stopped of criminal
explained that when he types a license plate activity.” This “reasonable suspicion exists
number into the NCIC/TCIC system, it will either “when the officer can point to specific and
report “insurance confirmed” or “unconfirmed,” articulable facts which, taken together with
and after getting a response he knows, “with the rational inferences from those facts, reasonably
knowledge and experience of working,” whether warrant the search and seizure.” And while the
the vehicle is uninsured. officer must have more than a “mere hunch” that
During the stop, Officer Leal did not ask for the person stopped is engaged in illegal activity,
proof of insurance. He stated that he “already “reasonable suspicion need not rise to the level of
knew that the vehicle wasn’t insured” based on probable cause.” Indeed, it requires only “‘some
the “unconfirmed” status generated by the minimal level of objective justification’ for
computer. However, the district court questioned making the stop.”
why Officer Leal did not seek to confirm the We have not yet addressed whether a state
computer’s report, asking specifically whether computer database indication of insurance status
“reports are sometimes inaccurate.” Leal may establish reasonable suspicion. However,
responded: “For the most part, no.” Later, Broca- several other circuits have found that such
Martinez’s attorney pressed Officer Leal on the information may give rise to reasonable suspicion
“unconfirmed” status: as long as there is either some evidence
suggesting the database is reliable or at least an
Q: Officer Leal, you said that the information you absence of evidence that it is unreliable.
got on the insurance
is that it was unconfirmed? Broca-Martinez relies only on state court cases to
A: Yes. support his argument. A district court in Texas
Q: So, in other words, he could have or not have also recently found reasonable suspicion for a
insurance, correct? vehicle stop when a computer database search
A: No. returned an “unconfirmed” insurance status.
Q: It’s unconfirmed? United States v. Vela, No. 2:15-CR-429, 2016
A: Yes. WL 305219, at *1–2 (S.D. Tex. Jan. 25, 2016). In
that case, an officer typed the vehicle’s license
The district court denied Broca-Martinez’s plate into a Mobile Data Terminal (“MDT”) to
motion to suppress. determine insurance status and received the
“unconfirmed” notification. At a hearing on the
Under Texas law, “[a] person may not operate a motion to suppress, two officers “testified that
motor vehicle in [Texas] unless financial they regularly use[d] the MDT to determine if a
responsibility is established for that vehicle vehicle is insured, and such a search will result in
through” either a “motor vehicle liability either a ‘confirmed’ or an ‘unconfirmed’
Nov./Dec. 2018 www.texaspoliceassociation.com • 866-997-8282 23
