State asks appeals court to clarify when officers may read no-contact orders during warrant checks

The State of Washington asked the Court of Appeals, Division I to take up State v. Schiff and clarify whether officers may review the terms of a no-contact order (NCO) when the order is discovered during a routine warrant/records check on a stop. "We're asking this court to grant review today because there is no need to wait for a domestic violence situation to review the terms of a no contact order discovered in the regular course of a warrant check," said Patrick Redick, deputy prosecuting attorney for the State.

Redick told the court that, under the State's reading, officers who learn of an NCO during a warrant check may read the order and determine whether its terms give rise to reasonable articulable suspicion of a violation. He relied on the approach in Alexander and Pettit, which he characterized as a two-step test: officer knowledge of an NCO's terms followed by on-the-ground observations that create reasonable articulable suspicion. The State asked the court to correct the superior court's reversal of Mr. Schiff's conviction in case number 800And88600And255 and to provide guidance on the line between permissible warrant checks and unrelated investigatory steps.

The presiding judge repeatedly questioned the parties about whether existing Terry-stop principles already provide sufficient guidance and posed hypotheticals about whether an officer could finish a citation, return to his vehicle to check an NCO, and then reengage a driver. Redick acknowledged record limits about whether dispatch characterized the order as a domestic-violence NCO but said trial testimony later addressed the order's domestic-violence nature and mandatory-arrest implications under RCW 10.99.

The matter was submitted after both sides argued. The court did not announce a decision at the hearing.