How many of us have been pulled over only to have the officer say “Do you know why I pulled you over?” That question is now a thing of the past! California passed AB 2773 in 2022, and it just took effect this year. This new law requires officers to state the reason for the stop, and then record all of the details to later be compiled in a report. The information that they must compile includes: date, time, location, reason for the stop, and the result of the stop. The agencies would then have to compile and report that data to the state.
Assembly member Chris Holden came up with this law in order to “promote equity and accountability in communities across California.” You may be wondering, how does it do that? There is something called a pretextual stop. That is basically pulling someone over for a technicality in order to investigate further crimes. For example, many of our DUI clients get pulled over for expired registrations, and then get cited for DUI.
Proponents of the law say that this could protect motorists that may be frightened and attempt to flee when the officer doesn’t indicate why they pulled them over. In my opinion, this law is good because of the fact that officers aren’t tricking people into admitting a crime. Imagine, “Do you know why I pulled you over?” and then the motorist admits to something totally unrelated that the officer wasn’t even investigating? The 5th Amendment right to remain silent is consistent with this law.
Ticket Crushers is California’s Top-Rated DUI & Traffic Defense Firm with Thousands of Cases Dismissed – Se Habla Español – Call us now at 1-866-842-5384 for more information on Speed Cameras in California.
Updated: 03/13/2024
