MARK KIESLING: Supreme Court takes another step to erode rights

You've all seen them, the signs along the highways and byways that say people should call police if they suspect they have seen an impaired motorist.

This in effect makes any driver an adjunct of the police, which is a dangerous thing.

Professional police officers are trained to spot the signs of an impaired driver — Joe or Jane Motorist is not.

Sure, if they're weaving into other lanes and causing potential harm to others, there is an obligation for a motorist to call police.

But it is the police themselves, the trained professionals, who need to make the ultimate call.

The Indiana Court of Appeals agreed with me, saying in a 2-1 decision police need to establish independent corroboration of a tip called in by someone who might just be a disgruntled or ignorant individual.

Are you trained to spot a drunken driver? Unless you are a police officer reading this, you are not.

Let the cops be cops. Tip them off, sure. But then let it go. Let them do their job.

But the Indiana Supreme Court, in yet another decision eroding the rights of individuals in Indiana, decided 4-1 that police had a perfect right to stop a woman leaving a downstate gas station and administer a breath examination based solely on the tip called in by another motorist.

It troubles me that now we are relying on untrained individuals to call in tips to police who — according to the Indiana Supremes — need no more than someone's ignorant word to detain another individual.

If we get a drunk off the streets, great. That's the last thing we need. But it is the job of our police officers to verify what any jamoke calls in.

Where does this end? If someone says they saw Joe Blow burglarizing the house next door, is that eventually going to give cops the right for a warrantless search of Mr. Blow's home?

Those who prefer security over liberty will soon have neither, and I'm not going to pretend I made that up for this column. That was Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, talking.

Of course we want to be secure from drunken drivers, burglars and the like. Nothing says private citizens should not call in a tip. But everything American says police should verify the tip before rushing in where angels fear to tread.

The lone dissenting voice on the Supreme Court decision came from Robert Rucker, of Gary, a former Lake County prosecutor who certainly knows his stuff, which I can testify from my personal relationship with Justice Rucker.

The voice of common sense on the Supreme Court seems to be relegated to Northwest Indiana.

Who would have thought?

The opinions are solely those of the writer. He can be reached at mark.kiesling@nwi.com or (219) 933-4170.