N.J. high court: Police can run criminal check on a passenger

NEWARK, N.J. - Police can run a criminal check on a passenger during a traffic stop, the state Supreme Court ruled yesterday in reinstating the conviction of a passenger arrested on outstanding warrants and found carrying crack cocaine.

The 6-0 ruling by New Jersey's highest court, in accord with a U.S. Supreme Court decision, found the driver and any passengers are seized when an officer stops a vehicle.

Since the stop in Middlesex County in 2003 was reasonable - the driver had a suspended license - Carteret police were justified in checking the National Crime Information Center database regarding passenger Sulaiman A. Sloane, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled.

Sloane appealed, but the court found he "had no reasonable expectation of privacy in the public records maintained in NCIC - such as - his two outstanding warrants and record of a parole violation - a check of the NCIC database was not a search, and police did not need reasonable and articulable suspicion of criminal activity to access that index."

Sloane had tried to keep the cocaine out of the case, arguing it came from an unlawful search. After a trial court rejected that argument, he pleaded guilty to a reduced drug charge and was sentenced to three years in prison.

A state appellate court reversed the suppression decision and vacated Sloane's conviction after determining that there was no reason to search the NCIC database. The high court disagreed.

"Because the decision to check the NCIC database was within the scope of the traffic stop and did not unreasonably prolong the stop, there was no basis to suppress the evidence found," Chief Justice Stuart Rabner wrote for the unanimous court.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year, in a California case, that passengers as well as drivers are seized during a traffic stop, and both are due constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. Sloane conceded that the traffic stop was reasonable.

Justice Helen E. Hoens did not participate in the case.

Sloane was represented through the New Jersey Public Defender's Office, where spokesman Tom Rosenthal said, "We're disappointed that the court did not recognize that a passenger's right to privacy includes the right not to be subjected to a random NCIC check."

Sloane, 33, is incarcerated at Bayside State Prison on a separate weapons charge.

A state deputy attorney general, Paul H. Heinzel, represented prosecutors and said the ruling reaffirms the practices of many police departments.

"It's a routine part of a traffic stop," Heinzel said. "Police have onboard terminals. They go online, and it tells them if the name they are entering has an outstanding warrant in any jurisdiction."