New York Court of Appeals · 1993
People v. Galak
Following a department procedure is not enough — the procedure itself has to be constitutional. Lynbrook officers impounded a car with mismatched plates and a registration more than a year expired after neither occupant could produce a license, and the 'inventory' turned up a dagger, a blackjack and an ignition device. The officer knew of no written regulations, decided case by case what to keep and what to hand back, and filled out the standard inventory form five hours later at headquarters. The Court of Appeals reversed, suppressed everything, and dismissed the indictment: the procedure ceded 'uncanalized discretion' to the field and never produced a usable inventory.
80 N.Y.2d 715 (1993)
Find the opinion for People v. GalakNew York Court of Appeals · 2015
People v. Guthrie
12:15 a.m., Village of Newark: an officer watched a car drive past a stop sign at a supermarket parking-lot exit, stopped it, smelled a strong odor of alcohol, and made a DWI. The sign was never registered in the Village Code, so under VTL § 1100(b) the stop-sign charge was legally impossible — the People conceded she could not be prosecuted for it. The Court of Appeals still upheld the stop and reversed suppression. The question is not whether you were right about the law; it is whether your belief that a violation occurred was objectively reasonable, and New York draws no distinction between reasonable mistakes of fact and reasonable mistakes of law.
25 N.Y.3d 130 (2015)
Find the opinion for People v. GuthrieNew York Court of Appeals · 2012
People v. Garcia
"Anybody got any weapons?" is a Level 2 common-law inquiry. On a lawful car stop you still need founded suspicion that criminality is afoot before you ask it — and nervous occupants do not get you there.
20 N.Y.3d 317 (2012)
Find the opinion for People v. GarciaEach summary was checked against the court’s majority opinion on September 30, 2026. Read the decision and follow your agency’s policy; this is reference guidance, not legal advice.
