It is being reported that since last fall, all Michigan police departments have online access to insurance information from all automotive insurers in Michigan (updated by the insurers twice a month). Every police officer in a cruiser can access this information via the cruiser's laptop by logging into LEIN (Law Enforcement Information Network).
Case law provides that a police officer does not need any reasonable suspicion or probable cause to randomly run license plates through the LEIN database. So what does this mean to you?
A police officer could stop you just because he ran your license plate through LEIN and LEIN showed that you did not have current insurance on your vehicle. This could be a good thing to keeping uninsured motorists off the road, but it is not without its peril.
What if you changed insurers or just got your insurance three days ago? That may very well NOT show up in LEIN as current insurance. That alone could give the police officer reason to stop you, when you in fact are insured.
Because he had reasonable suspicion to stop you in the first place, what about a subsequent search? What if he viewed an open container in the back seat? What if smelled an illegal substance?
As for now, it is reported that some police departments will not use the LEIN insurance information as the primary reason for a stop, but they also state that they COULD if they wanted to.
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