In this interlocutory appeal, Curtis Groves and David Smith challenge the denial of their motions to suppress evidence obtained by an officer during a traffic stop. Because the officer executed the traffic stop without the suspicion required to justify such a stop under the Fourth Amendment of the U. S. Constitution, we reverse. On appeal from a motion to suppress, the evidence is viewed in a light most favorable to upholding the trial court’s judgment. The credibility of witnesses and the weight accorded their testimony rest with the trier of fact. Thus, the trial court’s findings on disputed facts and credibility must be accepted unless clearly erroneous. Where the evidence is uncontroverted and there is no issue as to witness credibility, however, we review de novo the trial court’s application of the law to the undisputed facts.1 In this case, the relevant facts are not in dispute. The record shows that an officer on patrol spotted a lone sedan parked at the edge of an otherwise empty parking lot at a truck plaza. The officer pulled his marked patrol car behind the car and noticed that it was occupied by a passenger, Smith, and a driver, Groves, who was leaning briefly into the passenger side. Neither occupant noticed the officer, and approximately one and a half minutes elapsed as the officer called in the tag number. Groves then looked up, noticed the patrol car in his rear view mirror, put his car into gear, and “continued to drive on.” The officer immediately activated his emergency lights and executed a traffic stop of the vehicle. After the car stopped, the officer spoke to the occupants, noticed the smell of alcohol coming from Groves, obtained consent to search the car, and discovered what turned out to be crushed oxycodone packaged in cellophane in the car’s glove box. Based on the contraband, Groves and Smith were arrested and charged with one count of possession of oxycodone in violation of the Georgia Controlled Substances Act.2 The two defendants unsuccessfully moved to suppress the evidence from the stop, and this Court granted their application for interlocutory appeal.
Groves and Smith argue that the trial court erred by concluding that the officer’s initial traffic stop was justified and by ruling that the evidence obtained during the stop was therefore admissible. We agree. According to Terry v. Ohio ,3 police-citizen encounters are generally categorized into three tiers: consensual encounters; brief investigatory stops, which require reasonable suspicion; and arrests that must be supported by probable cause. In a first-tier encounter, police officers may approach citizens, ask for identification, and freely question the citizen without any basis or belief that the citizen is involved in criminal activity, as long as the officers do not detain the citizen or create the impression that the citizen may not leave. . . . So long as a reasonable person would feel free to disregard the police and go about his business, the encounter is consensual and no reasonable suspicion is required.4 As an initial matter, we note that “the actions of an officer approaching a stopped vehicle, requesting to see a driver’s license, and inquiring about possible criminal or suspicious activity clearly fall within the realm of the first type of police-citizen encounter and do not amount to a stop” implicating Fourth Amendment concerns.5 Thus, before Groves pulled away, while the officer merely sat in his patrol car behind Groves’s stopped vehicle, the encounter had not yet risen beyond a consensual, first-tier encounter requiring no suspicion. Therefore, Groves was free to ignore the officer and leave if he chose.6
