Judge rules Kansas Highway Patrol 'waged war on motorists,' violated constitutional rights

[Eugene]

Source: Kansas City Star

Judge rules Kansas Highway Patrol ‘waged war on motorists,’ violated constitutional rights

Katie Moore, Katie Bernard
Fri, July 21, 2023 at 2:40 PM EDT·4 min read

The Kansas Highway Patrol “has waged war on motorists,” a federal judge wrote in a scathing ruling against the agency’s practice of extending car stops in hopes of discovering drugs.

In the order filed Friday, U.S. District Judge Kathryn H. Vratil wrote that patrol’s tactics in traffic stops violated the Constitution.

The practice, called the “Kansas two step,” is a maneuver in which troopers at the end of a traffic stop take a couple of steps toward their patrol car before turning around to initiate a voluntary interaction with the driver.

The strategy would buy the patrol extra time to probe for incriminating information or get a drug-sniffing dog to a location.

“As wars go, this one is relatively easy,” Vratil wrote. “It’s simple and cheap, and for motorists, it’s not a fair fight. The war is basically a question of numbers: stop enough cars and you’re bound to discover drugs. And what’s the harm if a few constitutional rights are trampled along the way?”

-snip-

Read more: https://news.yahoo.com/judge-rules-kansas-highway-patrol-184013769.html

[ret5hd]

1. "Am I free to leave?"

“Yes”
No further interaction is necessary. Put it in drive and go.

And always film the police. If you are too afraid to do that overtly, just start recording and lay the phone down on the seat or console screen side down. At least their will be an audio recording.

[MuseRider]

2. I knew this was going to happen

when the rest, or most of the rest, of the country grew the fuck up and legalized weed we will not. It is still called by our legislators, EVIL weed. It has always been like that. Growing up we would drive to Missouri so my mother could buy her bourbon. We would stash it after wrapping it up in various places, a suitcase brought for the purpose and other things and hope we could cross the boarder back into Kansas and make it all the way home, 60 or so miles. We were the state that made people flying over give their drink cups to the stewards and stewardess while flying over the state. What they used to do to us during the Vern Miller days made it hard to even go out and make it to some place on time.

Of course Kansas is doing this. It never fails to do the dumbest things in the world.

[Rebl2]

4. Reminds me

of the old statement what’s the matter with Kansas.

[MuseRider]

7. LOL there is certainly cause for that

but I think there is cause in most states, at least in some parts of them. I have lived here all my life and have no reason to move. I am comfortable on my farm and my neighbors are nice but I have no clue how they vote. I have worked on a lot of issues in the area and did a ton of work for the rights of the LGBTQ+ citizens in this state. Nobody has ever questioned me about that or cared about what I was up to. We won BTW. We also won last year for abortion rights. It is an odd state. It took the 50 state strategy to move it and as soon as that was over we were done. My family lived here for many decades and fought with John Brown to keep it free when he was here and worked to keep the Underground Railroad going very close to where I live now. For me it is too much home to leave but as to the point, what is the matter with Kansas, it is complicated and twisted and will take more people to undo the problems than we have who are interested in doing it. IMO

[Rebl2]

10. Well

I am in KCMO, so I keep up with some of what goes on in KS. Sometimes I feel MO is worse. I hate to say it because I was born here and have never lived anywhere else. Maybe I should be saying what’s the matter with Missouri 😐.

[MuseRider]

11. LOL!

I knew that you lived there from a previous post a while back and totally forgot. No contest, both states have their ups and downs. It would be nice to settle on the upside now and again but somehow that never lasts for very long.

[rsdsharp]

3. Good. This was a blatant attempt to try to get around Rodriguez v United States.

That was a 6-3 2015 SOTUS decision authored by RBG which held law enforcement can’t unreasonably delay (beyond about 20 minutes) a traffic stop to bring in a drug sniffing dog. Kennedy, and of course, Alito and Thomas dissented.

[Gore1FL]

5. Last time I drove through KS (a little over a decade ago) They had signs on the interstate.

They warned of drug-sniffing dogs ahead. They were always right before an odd exit. Of course, they weren't stopping interstate traffic to violate the 4th amendment. I imagine they stopped anyone getting off at the exit.

[MuseRider]

6. I do not remember that

but cannot think it impossible. Was this in Western Kansas or the Central to Western Kansas route? Those are the only places I have seen signage like that but nothing surprises me about this state.

[Gore1FL]

8. I think the one I saw was around Salina on I-70.

Here is an article about one on another interstate in Wichita. Seems like the asaem deal.
The article was from 2015. My experience was 2010-2012ish.

https://www.ksn.com/news/drug-check-lanes-pop-up-north-of-wichita/

[MuseRider]

9. Wichita is a ways from the border so that cannot be why they

are checking there. Oh well, it has been taken care of now...right? RIGHT? They will always find a way.