Application of the Collective Knowledge Doctrine to an OWI Case

State v. Poling, no. 06-0684 (Iowa Ct. App. May 9, 2007)

Poling was stopped by a Dubuque police officer for going down a one way street the wrong way. He was allowed to proceed on his way, went down the one way street the wrong way again, and was stopped again by other officers at the request of the first officer.

Of course he was toasted, with a BAC of 0.242

Poling argued that the second stop of his vehicle was without reasonable suspicion and hence illegal. The court of appeals disagreed, finding that the shared or collective knowledge doctrine as applied means that what is known by one policeman is known by all, and thus what the second arresting officers saw or did not see was unimportant.