Does Littering Provide Basis for OVI Stop?

In Ohio, the answer is no, but that answer doesn’t get you anywhere. Here is why:

The police can stop you for littering if you throw a cigarette out of your car as you drive along. Since this is a crime in and of itself, the officer’s observations of that crime are sufficient to amount to Reasonable Suspicion for a Terry stop. If the officer then smells the odor of alcohol once you are stopped, he may be justified in investigating further and before you know it, you are back at the station being asked to blow into the machine. State v. Barden, 2001 Ohio App. LEXIS 1543 (March 30, 2001) Columbiana App. No. 2000-CO-35, unreported.