A federal judge orders Kansas state troopers to stop violating the constitution by illegally extending traffic stops. Since the 2015 Rodriguez case, the Supreme Court placed restrictions on how long a police stop can be. Rather than comply with the ruling, Kansas highway patrol sought to circumvent it: Officers would end a stop by starting to walk away from a car, then turn around and re-engage. They claimed this was a second stop and therefore not subject to the detention length restrictions.
Analyst Comment: This is another example of systemic abuse by police. The police have a “few bad apples” claims by some do not accurately describe police abuses like this. Here, every level of the Kansas highway patrol – from top leaders down to patrol officers – conspired to violate the constitution rather than respect citizen’s rights.