I'm in Kansas. A couple of my friends (both 20) were walking home from a party last night and the cops stopped them. Asked them to put their hands up for some reason, even though neither of them looked suspicious or had any kind of weapon. When they did so, one of my friends had a bottle of Big Dog in his sleeve, and when he put his hands up it slipped down and fell out of his hoodie. So, they took their IDs and wrote them tickets for MICs, and let them go.
A few minutes later the cops hunted them back down and made them blow a breathalyzer. Is that allowed? And what was the point?
They were also on college campus when the cops hunted them back down.
I realize that either way, they were drunk, and got caught; but can the cops just track them down like that?
Did your friends consent to the breathalyzer once the police "hunted them back down?"
Pedestrians should not be stopped and asked to take a breathlalyzer test. If the friends were in possession of alcohol, however, they could legitimately be charged with a minor in possession (and an MIP is charged the same as an MIC).
There was a recent Kansas Supreme Court decision on breathalyzers ... but I haven't read it yet. Once I do, I perhaps can add more.
edit to add:
Here is a link to the Kansas case and opinion, which concentrates on breath tests in drunk driving stops, but discusses warrantless searches and the Fourth Amendment:
http://www.kscourts.org/Cases-and-Opinions/opinions/SupCt/2016/20160226/111698.pdf
The US Supreme Court consolidated three similar cases, also recently, which contradicts the Kansas Supreme Court opinion on breath test refusals. The US Supreme Court said: "Because the impact of breath tests on privacy is slight, and the need for BAC testing is great, the Fourth Amendment permits warrantless breath tests incident to arrests for drunk driving." Here is a link to the Court Opinion in
Birchfield v. North Dakota:
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/15pdf/14-1468_8n59.pdf
Again, though, these were drunk driving arrests and not pedestrian breath tests.
Michigan found warrantless breath tests
for pedestrians unconstitutional without consent of the pedestrian.