What is a Triple I check?

Panhandle Scanner News and Weather

What is a Triple I check and when can it be used?

By Brian Hale, Hale Broadcasting

December 28, 2024

If you've listened to Scanner traffic before, you've probably heard officers call for a
triple I check.

Do you know what that is?

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So what is a triple I check?

Many people refer to it as a national criminal records check.

According to the Lancaster County Sheriff's Office in Nebraska, there is no such thing
as a national criminal records check.

In reality, there are thousands of separate criminal indexes maintained at the federal
state county and city levels throughout the United States to conduct a nationwide search
would require accessing each individual index.

There is, however, one nationwide criminal database, the FBI's Interstate Identification
Index, or Triple I.

However, this FBI database is not public record and cannot be legally accessed by anyone other than criminal justice agencies.

Even if Triple I records were available as public record, they typically do not contain a complete list of arrests for a particular individual. This is because not all arrests at the local level involve fingerprinting and without fingerprint cards and arrest record cannot be included in the Triple I.

So is a Triple I check permissible as part of a routine traffic stop?

In the United States vs. Hunter, in the Third Circuit Court in 2023, a trooper stopped Jamar Hunter for speeding, failing to signal a lane change and traveling over a solid white line. Once the trooper obtained identification from Hunter and his passenger, he returned to his car and performed a routine license or NCIC check. Both Hunter and his passenger had valid driver's licenses and neither was the subject of an arrest warrant. The trooper then conducted an additional check that extended the traffic stop performing a computerized criminal check known as the Triple I check. The Triple I check took only a minute or two. This check revealed both Hunter and his passenger had significant criminal histories including firearm and drug trafficking convictions. The trooper returned and ordered Hunter out of the car to perform a terry frisk. The frisk produced a loaded Glock 45 semi-automatic handgun in Hunter's waistband. The trooper immediately arrested Hunter.
The entire traffic stop lasted less than eight minutes. Hunter was later indicted for possession of a firearm as a convicted felon.

Hunter asked the trial judge to suppress the gun evidence claiming the Triple I check improperly extended the traffic stop beyond the permissible constitutional scope. The trial court agreed and granted Hunter's motion to suppress. Ruling the Triple I check was unrelated to the traffic stop mission and, without reasonable suspicion, prolonged the stop, therefore violating the Fourth Amendment under Rodriguez vs. United States, 575 U.S. 348 in 2015. In Rodriguez, the Supreme Court held a stop may last no longer than is necessary to effectuate the initial purpose of the stop. Authority for the seizure thus ends when tasks tied to the traffic infraction are, or reasonably should have been, completed.

The government appealed.

The appellate court reversed the trial court's decision. The appellate court held that the criminal history check, which took just two minutes, was an objectively reasonable safety precaution related to the mission of the traffic stop under Rodriguez. The court of appeals found the check to be a negligibly burdensome officer safety precaution that fell within the stop's mission. Therefore, the appellate court held that the Triple I check was an objectively reasonable safety precaution related to the traffic stop.

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Source(s); Lancaster County Sheriff's Office, Interpol

https://www.lancaster.ne.gov/374/Criminal-History-Request

https://www.interpol.int/en