Columbus Georgia drivers stopped for DUI and or drugs cannot be held for an unreasonably long time. When the Officer initiates a traffic stop, the question under the 4th Amendment is whether the stop was reasonable under the circumstances, not based upon the officer’s subjective motives, beliefs, or intentions. The real question turns upon the objective assessment of the officer’s actions based upon the objective facts & circumstances known to the officer and confronting him. If the stop is unreasonably prolonged, then the evidence gathered from the illegal detention is not admissible. For example, the Georgia Court of Appeals has recently held drugs discovered in the driver’s car were inadmissible and excluded from evidence, when, after being stopped for speeding, the officer failed to communicate with dispatch in a timely manner to check the subject’s driver’s license and instead continued questioning and searched the driver’s car well after the time dispatch had called, at which point the detention of the driver should have ended. Whether your arrest for DUI resulted from an unreasonably prolonged traffic stop for another traffic violation is a legal question for a trained and experienced DUI attorney.
