Court dispute over SFPD “pretext” traffic stop that yielded gun, drugs and wanted felon
A 2023 “pretext” traffic stop by SFPD officers, which resulted in a wanted felon’s arrest and the seizure of his loaded gun and drugs, was criticized in federal court today by defense attorneys who complained police lacked probable cause to search the vehicle and asked for the evidence found to be thrown out.
Officers had been concerned to see an SUV with a vehicle registration five months expired driving through San Francisco’s Tenderloin district. They pulled the car over, identified driver Elmo Daniels as having an open warrant, saw drugs in plain sight and then searched the car to find the driver’s gun.
A since-enacted SFPD policy bans its officers from making this type of traffic stop after activists protested that ethnic minorities were being unfairly targeted and that contraband was seldom found.
At the conclusion of today’s hearing at San Francisco federal courthouse U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley said she would issue a ruling later.
The court was earlier told that on November 11 2023 SFPD Officers Prasadi and Parkin pulled over an SUV driving through San Francisco’s Tenderloin district with a vehicle registration five months expired.
After identifying the driver, Elmo Daniels, Officer Prasadi returned to his patrol car and searched the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (CLETS) which revealed him to have had 91 prior felony contacts, 49 prior misdemeanor contacts and 9 prior infraction contacts with police.
The search also showed him to have an open misdemeanor warrant and listed “ADW” [assault with a deadly weapon] and “murder” in the category of “danger potential”.
Nonetheless the officers appeared inclined to let Daniels go until they noticed a small bag containing suspected methamphetamine in a cup holder. This, prosecutors said, gave them probable cause to search the vehicle which led to the discovery of a loaded Hi-Point 9mm handgun wedged between the driver’s seat and the center console, suspected cocaine and marijuana.
Daniels has multiple convictions for firearms possession. In 2018 he repeatedly punched a woman in the head, who was sleeping next to her infant daughter, before threatening her with a gun and pepper-spraying her. In 2022 he kicked, punched and bit a woman before strangling her to unconsciousness.
Prosecutors earlier told the court that the defendant has “repeatedly shown that he is a danger to the community and that he refuses to comply with the law.”
An evidentiary hearing this morning at San Francisco federal courthouse focused on two of the questions raised by defense attorneys relating to the search: whether officers had probable cause to undertake it at all, and whether Daniels had voluntarily provided the bag of drugs that provoked the search to police.
“Officer Prasadi has the training and experience to recognize what a suspect narcotic looks like,” assistant U.S. Attorney Roland Chang told the court this morning. “Upon that secondary approach he saw what he saw: suspected narcotics on plain view.”
In earlier briefing, Daniels’ attorney said that police policy told officers not to use their in-car computers to obtain criminal history information during routine traffic stops. As such Prasadi’s multiple queries of the CLETS database in this case was a non-routine record check which violated Daniels’ fourth amendment rights.
They also said that, in addition to the traffic stop taking too long, officers conducted an unreasonable search when they demanded Daniels hand them the bag from the cupholder. Prasadi lacked a warrant and did not have probable cause and so the search was “presumptively unreasonable.”
They asked the evidence officers found in the vehicle be suppressed which, practically speaking, would result in the termination of the gun possession case against their client.
Prosecutors maintained that the traffic stop itself was lawful and not prolonged unduly. Once officers had noticed the suspected drugs, they said, they had probable cause to search the vehicle. All of the evidence was obtained properly and the court ought to deny the motion to suppress, they concluded.
They denied that the stop was pretextual at all. “Daniels was driving a vehicle with a long-expired registration,” wrote assistant U.S. attorney Roland Chang in a motion, “Officer Prasadi pulled him over because of it; and the officer was going to give Daniels a warning before he saw the drugs in plain view.”
“Regardless of whether the computer queries took 30 seconds or ten minutes, Officer Prasadi’s independent observation of the drugs within the car gave him probable cause for an automobile search,” he added.
Thanks to a policy change in July last year SFPD officers are now forbidden from making traffic stops in several circumstances including one – vehicle registration expired for less than a year – that resulted in Daniels’ arrest in this case and the discovery of the loaded handgun hidden close to his right hand.
“This police will help prevent police from needlessly stopping people under the guise of traffic enforcement,” said Yoel Haile of the ACLU of Northern California in a press release hailing the new rule.
“This is not only a discriminatory tactic that has disproportionately targeted [p]eople of [c]olor, it’s dangerous. Time and time again [b]lack and [b]rown people have been killed when these totally unnecessary encounters have escalated,” Haile added.
“The data is clear: pretext stops have been an unmitigated failure,” said San Francisco Police Commission Vice President Max Carter-Oberstone.
“They are a massive waste of resources that do not result in arrests or discovery of contraband. This policy will allow us to reinvest our resources into strategies that actually keep us safe.”
For their part, the San Francisco Police Officers’ Association filed a lawsuit in October last year in an effort to have the ban reversed, claiming that local officials are not permitted to interfere with officers’ obligation to enforce state motor vehicle regulations.
“[U]nless and until injunctive relief is issued, the enforcement of DGO 9.07 will jeopardize the safety and welfare of the general public,” the POA said in its complaint.
“Research shows that pretext stops have wrought significant, particularized harm to people of color – especially [b]lack people – that manifests as psychological trauma, mistrust of the police, and the weariness of living in a society where ‘driving while [b]lack’ remains reason enough for a traffic stop.” wrote Brian Cox, of San Francisco Public Defender’s Office in a ‘friend of the court’ brief.
The San Francisco Bar Association also weighed in in favor of the ban.
Traffic stops in San Francisco regularly turn up firearms, contraband and wanted felons.
“I will take it under submission and issue a written order,” said Judge Corley at the conclusion of this morning’s hearing.
Daniels remains in custody ahead of his next hearing on March 26.
The case continues.
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