Request By:
Hon. David R. Reeves
Carter County Attorney
Carter County Courthouse
Crayson, Kentucky 41143
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; Willie E. Peale, Assistant Attorney General
This is in reply to your letter where you ask this Office whether it is lawful for a police officer on the ground to cite a traffic violator based on observations communicated to him by another officer in an airplane.
We find this procedure to be lawful. In KRS 431.015(1) lawful In KRS 431.015(1) it states that:
"A peace officer may issue a citation instead of making an arrest for a misdemeanor or violation committed in his presence, if there are reasonable grounds to believe that the person being cited will appear to answer the charge. The citation shall provide that the defendant shall appear within a designated time." (Emphasis added).
The underlined language refers to the problem addressed in your question with the above citation procedure. We believe that it can be said that the peace officer citing the violator is acting as agent or is assisting the officer who personally observed the violation. As such the knowledge of the peace officer observing the traffic violation is imputed to the officer citing the violator. See 6A C.J.S., Arrest § 32.
Our view finds further support in State v. Barnes, Hi., 568 P.2d 1207 (1977), where it is stated:
"While police officers are acting in concert and are keeping each other informed of the progress of a particular investigation, the knowledge of each is deemed to be the knowledge of all. Personal knowledge on the part of the arresting officer of the facts and circumstances establishing probable cause would not . . . be required to enable him to effect an arrest. "
Directly on point is the case of State v. Cook, Kan., 399 P.2d 835 (1965). This case held that a traffic offense was committed in the presence of a highway patrolman who issued the traffic citation. In this instance the officer was in radio contact with two other officers who had clocked the speed of an automobile from an airplane. Though no Kentucky cases are directly on point, we feel that our appellate courts would uphold this practice under the same rationale.
In conclusion, we feel that the practice of employing an officer in an airplane to observe speeding violations which are then communicated to other officers who cite the violator is proper under the language of KRS 431.015.