United States v. Johnson, 2026 WL 393736 (8th Cir. 2026)
Traffic stops are narrow events. The mission is defined, and the clock matters. In United States v. Johnson, the appellate court reversed a drug conviction because an officer stretched a routine traffic stop just long enough for a K9 unit to arrive. The court’s message was blunt: Don’t manufacture time for a dog sniff by dragging your feet.
The South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation asked Officer Stevens to pull over a car that was leaving a surveilled apartment building. On a nearby residential street, he stopped the car, driven by Alex Johnson, for excessive window tint. During the stop, Johnson admitted his license was suspended. The officer confirmed the suspension within six minutes. At that point, the officer had everything necessary to issue a citation for driving with a suspended license and to issue a warning for the window tint. The trial court ruled that, had Officer Stevens acted diligently, the paperwork would have been completed in about 20 minutes.
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However, instead of finalizing the stop and sending Johnson on his way, the officer delayed completing the citation. He engaged Johnson in unrelated conversation while he waited for a police detector dog unit to arrive. Once the dog arrived, it gave a positive response to the odor of drugs in the vehicle. This provided probable cause to search the car — a search that revealed the presence of illegal drugs. A related subsequent search of Johnson’s apartment produced even more drugs. Johnson moved to suppress.
The Supreme Court has plainly stated a traffic stop may last only as long as necessary to address the reason for the stop and related safety tasks. Once the mission is (or reasonably should have been) completed, the stop must end unless there is independent, reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. There wasn’t in this case.
You do not get bonus time. You do not get investigative drift. And you do not get to stall for the dog.
The trial court acknowledged the officer could have completed the stop in about 20 minutes. Nonetheless, the trial court upheld the delay under the “community caretaking” theory, reasoning that because Johnson’s license was suspended, he could not legally drive away anyway. In other words, since the car could not leave, the continued detention was acceptable.
Community caretaking does not create a broad authority to prolong detention.
The appellate court focused on one question: Was the officer diligently pursuing the traffic mission? Their answer was no. There was no active effort to impound the vehicle, no call to a tow truck to remove the car from the road. The officer simply delayed completing the stop while waiting for the K9 handler and his detector dog. That is a constitutional problem.
Community caretaking does not create a broad authority to prolong detention. It applies when officers are actively addressing safety concerns — not when they are idling until a dog arrives. Because the stop was unreasonably prolonged, the dog sniff was tainted. The drugs in the car were suppressed. The apartment search — justified by the evidence found in the car — was disallowed as fruit of the poisonous tree. Conviction reversed.
Takeaways for officers:
- The stopwatch starts immediately. The constitutional analysis does not look at how long the stop actually lasted. It asks how long it should have lasted if you had worked diligently to bring it to a conclusion.
- Conversation is not diligence. A friendly chat, probing questions, or killing time do not advance the mission of a traffic stop. Courts will examine body cam footage and ask: Was the officer working … or waiting?
- Community caretaking is narrow. If the driver cannot legally drive away, that does not automatically extend detention. You must be actively executing a safety function, such as arranging a tow, securing the vehicle, or addressing roadway hazards. Passive delay is not caretaking.
- If independent reasonable suspicion develops, you may extend the stop. But without it, you must finish the mission and end the detention. You cannot stretch a stop just because a K9 is on the way.
Traffic stops are narrow constitutional windows. Once the mission is complete, the detention must also be done.
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