Judge Kimba Wood
By joining the NYPD’s Taxi/Livery Robbery Inspection Program (TRIP), taxi owners agree to police stops to check driver safety. Decals alert passengers and police to enrollment. Shortly after report of a gunpoint robbery, police stopped a livery cab bearing TRIP decals. An officer saw the hammer of a gun on the floor in front of passenger Edwards. Arrested after the gun’s retrieval, Edwards made inculpatory statements. Both the cab owner and driver claimed to have never registered the car with TRIP nor signed search consent forms. Edwards was indicted for possessing a firearm after a felony conviction. The court denied suppression of the gun and statements as fruit of an unlawful stop violating the Fourth Amendment. Discussing People v. Abad and People v. Moreno, it found the decals created the appearance that the cab was enrolled in TRIP, thus it was reasonable for the officers to believe they could stop the cab. The plain view of a gun provided an “independent reason” to detain Edwards. On seeing the gun’s hammer, the officer could lawfully search the cab without warrant under the Fourth Amendment’s “automobile exception.”
