Section 6.9 Tips

• Library: DWI 2014

When assessing the reasonableness of an officer’s actions in response to an anonymous tip, Missouri courts pay particular attention to whether the information provided in the tip is supplemented by an independent police investigation. State v. Roark, 229 S.W.3d 216, 221 (Mo. App. W.D. 2007). The veracity of anonymous tipsters is unknown and unknowable. Id. (citing Ill. v. Gates,462 U.S. 213, 237 (1983)). When anonymous tips contain specific details that describe future actions, the credibility of these tips is significantly enhanced by independent confirmation. Roark,229 S.W.3d at 221. Tips that provide no more information than an officer can observe on the officer’s own fail to invest the anonymous tip with the type of veracity to suggest that the tipster was honest or particularly well informed as to the alleged criminal activity and, as such, do not provide sufficient basis for a reasonable officer to conclude that criminal activity is involved. Id.

In Roark,229 S.W.3d 216, the information provided by the anonymous tipster contained a description of the defendant’s car, where the defendant was driving, and that the driver was possibly intoxicated. The description of the vehicle and its location on the highway failed to give the officer any more information than what he was able to observe on his own, and those facts, standing alone, contributed nothing to support suspicion that any criminal activity was taking place. Id. at 222.

In another anonymous tip case, State v. Grayson,336 S.W.3d 138, 141–44 (Mo. banc...