State v. Golotta

In this search-and-seizure case, a cell-phone user telephoned a 9-1-1 operator to report that a particular motor vehicle was being driven erratically on a public road. The question presented is whether that call and the information that it imparted provided a constitutional basis for the police to stop the identified vehicle. Given the significant risk of death or serious injury to the public and to the vehicle’s driver implicated by such a call, and in view of the other factors discussed below, we hold that the answer to that question is yes.

I

These are the pertinent facts as developed at the…