{"id":335,"date":"2018-07-16T12:50:13","date_gmt":"2018-07-16T16:50:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tampacriminallawyer.net\/?p=335"},"modified":"2026-01-09T03:08:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T08:08:28","slug":"florida-court-license-plate-bracket-justifies-car-stop-search","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-license-plate-bracket-justifies-car-stop-search\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Court: License Plate Bracket Justifies Car Stop, Search"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Police officers must have reasonable suspicion to believe that you\u2019re committing a crime in order to stop your car on the road. They need to have probable cause\u2014a higher bar\u2014to actually search the car. These are two important protections for anyone suspected of or charged with a Florida crime. But, as the state\u2019s Third District Court of Appeal recently <a href=\"https:\/\/law.justia.com\/cases\/florida\/third-district-court-of-appeal\/2018\/3d16-0564.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pointed out<\/a>, there are many ways in which the cops can legally stop your car and search it.<\/p>\n<p>Defendant was charged with possession with intent to sell, manufacture or deliver a controlled substance after a police officer found Xanax pills in Defendant\u2019s car. The officer, who was in an unmarked car investigating unrelated crimes in the area, said he originally pulled Defendant over because he noticed part of Defendant\u2019s license plate was obscured. A metal frame was blocking &#8220;MyFlorida.com&#8221; from the top portion of the license plate and &#8220;Sunshine State&#8221; from the bottom portion.\u00a0The officer said he searched the car because he smelled marijuana inside.<\/p>\n<p>A trial judge agreed with Defendant that the search was illegal. As a result, the judge granted Defendant\u2019s request to suppress all of the evidence gained during the stop, including the Xanax pills. The Third District reversed that decision on appeal, however, finding that state law gave the officer the right to pull Defendant\u2019s car over.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-license-plate-bracket-justifies-car-stop-search\/#more-335\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Police officers must have reasonable suspicion to believe that you\u2019re committing a crime in order to stop your car on the road. They need to have probable cause\u2014a higher bar\u2014to actually search the car. These are two important protections for anyone suspected of or charged with a Florida crime. But, as the state\u2019s Third District [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1750,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-defenses","category-drug-crimes"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>License Plate Bracket Justifies Car Stop<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Read how a simple license plate bracket led to a lawful car stop in Florida and how small equipment issues can trigger searches.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-license-plate-bracket-justifies-car-stop-search\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"License Plate Bracket Justifies Car Stop\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Read how a simple license plate bracket led to a lawful car stop in Florida and how small equipment issues can trigger searches.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/license-plate-bracket-car-stop.webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Hanlon Law, PA\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"License Plate Bracket Justifies Car Stop","description":"Read how a simple 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