{"id":32765,"date":"2023-07-21T18:09:06","date_gmt":"2023-07-22T00:09:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/federal-judge-orders-end-to-kansas-two-step-police-tactic-that-targets-colorado-drivers\/"},"modified":"2023-07-22T00:09:06","modified_gmt":"2023-07-22T00:09:06","slug":"federal-judge-orders-end-to-kansas-two-step-police-tactic-that-targets-colorado-drivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/federal-judge-orders-end-to-kansas-two-step-police-tactic-that-targets-colorado-drivers\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal judge orders end to \u2018Kansas Two-step\u2019 police tactic that targets Colorado drivers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Vehicles
Vehicles travel in advance of Thanksgiving along I-70 near Lawrence, Kansas, on Nov. 25, 2020. (Orlin Wagner\/Associated Press file)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A federal judge has ruled against the Kansas Highway Patrol, ordering it to stop detaining motorists without reasonable suspicion, a practice that had come to be known as the \u201cKansas Two-Step.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a huge win \u2013 for our clients and for anyone else who travels on Kansas highways. We are gratified that the Court saw the ongoing harms of KHP\u2019s unconstitutional practices and stepped in to stop the department\u2019s widespread misconduct,\u201d said Sharon Brett, legal director of the ACLU of Kansas. \u201cToday\u2019s decision validates that motorists\u2019 constitutional rights cannot be cast aside under the guise of a \u2018war on drugs.\u2019 It also demonstrates that courts will not tolerate the cowboy mentality of policing that subjects our citizens to conditions of humiliation, degradation, and, in some tragic cases, violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the decision, the court ruled KHP\u2019s policies and practices violated the Fourth Amendment. The court noted that, as other states have legalized marijuana, the KHP has \u201cwaged war on motorists.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs wars go, this one is relatively easy; it\u2019s simple and cheap, and for motorists, it\u2019s not a fair fight,\u201d the court said. \u201cThe war is basically a question of numbers: stop enough cars and you\u2019re bound to discover drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kansas is one of three states in the country that has no form of legalized marijuana.<\/p>\n

In the two-step, after making the initial traffic stop, the trooper begins to leave the vehicle, then returns to the driver to reengage them and ask further questions. Jones says the tactic often allowed the KHP to determine there was probable cause to detain the driver or order a canine sniff of the vehicle.<\/p>\n

Over the last three years, the ACLU of Kansas represented a number of plaintiffs in the case, including Shawna Maloney, who formerly lived in Loveland. She and her family were driving their RV on a road trip to visit some family in Alabama when they were stopped by the highway patrol on I-70 about halfway through Kansas.<\/p>\n

Maloney and her family were stopped because, according to the state trooper, they\u2019d crossed the shoulder of the road. They were detained for almost an hour.<\/p>\n

Asked what impact the ruling might have for motorists driving through other states, Jones said \u201cWe\u2019re hoping that other law enforcement agencies read this opinion and think about what it means for their own practices. This opinion is a very clear repudiation of the idea that law enforcement agencies can do whatever they want, without any consequence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe law enforcement officers, police departments, they have to follow the law just like everyone else,\u201d Jones said. \u201cAnd that means they have to follow and respect the United States Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Kansas Highway Patrol could not immediately be reached for comment.<\/p>\n

To read more stories from Colorado Public Radio, visit www.cpr.org<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

enforcement used stops to search vehicles, often when there was no legitimate cause<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32766,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[133,28,52],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-32765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-courts","tag-headlines","tag-law-enforcement"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32765"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=32765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}