449 U.S. 411, 101 S. Ct. 690, 66 L. Ed. 2d 621 (1981)
In late 1976, Border Patrol officers were patrolling a sparsely populated section of southern central Arizona. They discovered multiple sets of human footprints leading north from the Mexican border across approximately 30 miles of desert and mountains to an isolated point on Highway 86. From these tracks, the officers deduced that groups of 8 to 20 persons had been guided along this path on several occasions.1
The officers observed a recurring distinctive Y-shaped or chevron shoeprint and noted patterns indicating nighttime travel on weekends during clear weather.2 They surmised that a guide they called “Chevron” was leading the groups to a pickup location near milepost 122, where a vehicle would meet them after they walked eastward parallel to the highway.3
On the night of January 30-31, 1977, the first clear night after several days of rain, Officers Gray and Evans parked their patrol car at an elevated position at milepost 149, about 27 miles east of milepost 122, to monitor vehicles traveling on Highway 86.4 They focused on vans, pickup trucks, campers, and similar large enclosed vehicles that passed westbound toward milepost 122 and then returned eastbound after roughly one and a half hours.5
At approximately 4:30 a.m., a distinctively colored pickup truck with a camper shell passed westbound, and at 6:12 a.m. a vehicle matching that description returned eastbound with license plate GN 8804.6 The officers stopped the truck, identifying respondent Jesus Cortez as the driver and owner and respondent Pedro Hernandez-Loera as the passenger wearing shoes with soles matching the chevron design; six illegal aliens were discovered in the camper.7
Cortez and Hernandez-Loera were charged with six counts of transporting illegal aliens in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1324(a).8 After the District Court denied their pretrial motion to suppress the evidence obtained from the stop, a jury convicted them and they were sentenced to concurrent five-year prison terms, with Hernandez-Loera also fined $12,000.9 The Ninth Circuit reversed the convictions, and the Supreme Court granted certiorari to review the basis for the investigative stop.10
Whether objective facts and circumstantial evidence suggesting that a particular vehicle is involved in criminal activity may provide a sufficient basis to justify an investigative stop of that vehicle?11
An investigatory stop must be justified by some objective manifestation that the person stopped is, or is about to be, engaged in criminal activity.12 The totality of the circumstances, or the whole picture, must be taken into account to determine whether the detaining officers have a particularized and objective basis for suspecting the particular person stopped of criminal activity.13 This assessment is based upon all of the circumstances, including objective observations, information from police reports, and consideration of the modes or patterns of operation of alien smugglers, from which trained officers draw inferences and make deductions.14
Yes. The Border Patrol officers accumulated objective facts from the recurring chevron shoeprints and the timing patterns of the crossings on clear weekend nights.15
These specific articulable facts, combined with rational inferences from the officers' experience, provided a particularized suspicion that the Cortez pickup truck was engaged in the criminal activity of transporting illegal aliens.16
The objective facts and circumstantial evidence suggesting that the particular vehicle was involved in criminal activity provided a sufficient basis to justify the investigative stop of that vehicle.17
Related opinions on this issue
Justice Stewart concurred, emphasizing that the officers knew or had rationally deduced Chevron's pattern of leading illegal aliens to milepost 122 early in the morning on weekends during good weather.18 He noted the low volume of traffic on Route 86 during the night, with only 15 to 20 westbound vehicles passing, and only two capacious enough for a group of aliens.19 The fact that one such vehicle made the round trip in the precise time needed for a journey to milepost 122 and back provided specific articulable facts that, with rational inferences, warranted suspicion under the standard from United States v. Brignoni-Ponce.20
Stewart concluded that the information possessed by the officers met the requirements for the stop.21