Editing Tipster is to be Presumed Reliable

Sitting in its capacity as an appellate court, the circuit court overturned the trial court's ruling that granted the defendant's motion to suppress certain evidence in a DUI case. The court overturned the trial court's ruling finding that the county court committed reversible error when it misclassified a citizen informant as an anonymous tipster. The difference is that an individual determined to be a citizen informant is entitled to a presumption of reliability as opposed to an anonymous tipster where there is no presumption. In the case wherein an informant is classified as an anonymous tipster, a police officer has to corroborate the allegations provided in the anonymous tip prior to making a traffic stop. In this case, the circuit court determined that the tipster should have been classified as a citizen informant because of the fact that the individual gave his name, his telephone number and his location to dispatch. The information given by the citizen informant was the basis for the authorities to issue a "BOLO" which is also known as "be on the lookout". The court determined that the it was not necessary for the arresting officer to corroborate the information provided in the tip before making the traffic stop because the tip contained sufficient detail in excess of a simple description. The information provided by the citizen informant included a description of defendant, a summary of the alleged criminal conduct, the color of defendant's car, the make of defendant's car and the direction that the defendant was traveling. The circuit court noted that defendant was stopped within three minutes after the BOLO was issued. For more information on [http://yourfloridacriminalattorney.com/criminal-lawyer-fort-lauderdale/ Criminal Lawyer ] and [http://rabble.ca/babble/introductions/tipster-determined-not-to-be-anonymous-tipster Criminal Lawyer ] you can contact us at: The Law Offices of Michael A. Dye, PA 1 E Broward Blvd # 700 Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301 (954)990-0525

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