Q: I had a cop follow me but did not pull me over before I parked and went inside of Wendy’s. He came inside and asked for my license, insurance, and registration. My license is suspended but he never pulled me over. Is that legal?
A: You are not the only person wondering about this. I had a similar inquiry from a suspended driver parked at Jack in the Box that got a ticket and had his truck towed. And there’s this one: While I was inside a store, a police officer ran my license plate. It came back as “driver’s license suspended”. When I came out to the parking lot and started driving he stopped me and ticketed me for driving on a suspended license.
Most of the time, drivers meet officers after seeing red and blue lights flashing in their rearview mirror. But that’s not the only way to get a ticket. And parking on private property before an officer initiates a traffic stop doesn’t get you a free pass. Imagine if it did. An officer who witnesses a traffic violation can follow up in a parking lot, or even in a fast-food chain restaurant.
The bigger question is, in these situations did the officers have a legitimate reason to take enforcement action? Before I go any further I’ll remind you that I’m a traffic safety nerd, not a lawyer or judge, and we’re getting more into criminal procedure than traffic safety. But the Revised Code of Washington can get us to some answers.
The common theme here (besides the non-traditional traffic stop locations) is driving suspended. The law permits an officer to stop a vehicle if they have “received notice of the suspension” from the department of licensing (DOL), and the license number on the vehicle is registered to the suspended driver. DOL doesn’t send officers postcards letting them know who’s suspended; most likely, the officer got the notice after they entered the license plate number in their mobile data terminal.
So here’s a plausible explanation first scenario: the officer checked the license plate number and didn’t get a response until the driver had gone into the restaurant. At that point he could either wait until the driver finished their meal or follow them in and take action right away.
In the second situation the officer only observed the driver in a parking lot. Is that enough for a violation of driving while suspended? Most traffic laws are limited to public roads, but the more serious ones, including driving suspended, “apply upon highways and elsewhere throughout the state.” Driving in a parking lot is still driving suspended.
Suspended drivers are high-risk drivers. There’s a reason they get suspended. Highlights from the law include impaired driving, reckless driving, a traffic violation that causes a serious crash, and three or more moving violations in a year.
I listed impairment first because it’s a big one; 20 percent of unlicensed drivers involved in a fatal crash had a previous impaired driving conviction, compared to three percent of licensed drivers. Unlicensed drivers involved in fatal crashes are twice as likely to be impaired or speeding (or both). Fifteen percent of fatal crashes in Washington involve an unlicensed driver, and half of those drivers are suspended or revoked. (Most of the rest of the drivers never had a license to begin with.)
Questioning the legitimacy of government action is an important part of maintaining a functional democracy, but in these instances the outcomes were the natural consequences of high-risk drivers continuing to drive with a suspended license.
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