If a police officer has reasonable suspicion to believe a crime has been committed, he or she is permitted to pull a vehicle to the side of the road in North Carolina. However, what amounts to reasonable suspicion can sometimes be a source of contention. In North Carolina, the case law if fairly settled that if a police officer “reasonably believes” that a driver of a vehicle has a suspended or revoked driver’s license, the officer would have reasonable suspicion to stop the vehicle. Reasonable suspicion has generally been found in cases where the officer knows who the driver of the vehicle is, and fairly believes that they have had his or her driving privileges suspended.
In one such case, State v. Kincaid, a police officer pulled a driver over because he believed the driver was operating his vehicle with a revoked license. However, the officer discovered thereafter that the driver of the car, in fact, had his driving privileges restored. The court still found that the officer had reasonable suspicion to stop the vehicle because the officer was aware of “specific facts which led him to believe that the driver’s license may have been revoked.”
In another case, State v. Hess, an officer knew the driver of a vehicle was the owner of the same vehicle, and when he ran his license plate number, it was revealed that the driver’s operating license had been suspended. The court held here that, under these circumstances, the officer did possess reasonable suspicion to stop the vehicle. So, for the most part, officers have wide discretion in what determines reasonable suspicion to pull someone over if they suspect someone as having a suspended driving privilege.
