Legality of police catching drunk drivers by waiting across the street from a bar....

Factual Questions
1

… in the state of Missouri. (sorry, it wouldn’t fit in the title line)

A friend of mine (and bar owner) tells me this is illegal. Two questions:

  1. Is this practice illegal in the state of Missouri?
  2. How do I go about answering questions like this myself? Can statutes be searched by subject?

thanks in advance. --J

2

Search the Missouri Statutes

WAG - What is the difference between a cop driving past a bar and observing what appears to be a drunk individual leaving the bar apparently heading for the vehicle (to drive it), and just sitting across the street observing the same thing?

3

Previous thread from a little while ago.

4

That was actually the first place I tried, but I’m having a hard time coming up with valid search terms. “Illegal Stop” and “Unlawful Stop” yield no results, for example. I realize part of my problem is I’m searching for a negative; I know I’m not going to find a statute that says “____ is lawful.” But how about case law; is there anyway to find out if a Mo. court has ruled this (or any) practice illegal.

(I’m a layman, with absolutely no experience in plowing through cases and statute, so be patient with my stupid questions.)

5

Yes, for what it’s worth the statutes of all 50 states can be searched at www.findlaw.com, and federal statutes too. Unfortunately, as J. String found, the searcing is not very intelligent, and the resulting lists of statutes don’t usually indicate what the statutes actually say.