Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa. GRL Law has long argued that Department of Transportation Commercial Motor Vehicle Enforcement Officers cannot legally stop commercial drivers without reasonable suspicion of a law violation. It has long been the practice of Iowa law enforcement officers to randomly stop commercial vehicles to weigh them or check compliance with regulations. Back in 2016 in a blog titled A case for Truck Drivers and the Fourth Amendment, we set out our contention that the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution requires either law enforcement to have a stationary checkpoint or a reasonable suspicion of a traffic offense in order to stop commercial vehicles. Now in 2022 we had a case that lined up correctly to challenge this practice. Following a hearing on defendants motion to suppress evidence a Polk County Judge agreed with GRL’s argument and found that such stops violate the Fourth Amendment. All charges were subsequently dismissed.
