As noted in Constitutional Law in Criminal Justice, “A pretextual traffic stop is a traffic stop made for an observed traffic violation in which the officer’s real motive is to check out a hunch about unrelated criminal activity.” (p. 123)
Do you agree with the Supreme Court in Whren v. United States, 517 U.S. 806 (1996) that this is an acceptable practice under the Fourth Amendment? Why or why not?
Can you think of an example where this police strategy can be abused?