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N.H. State Trooper Haden Wilber was stationed on Interstate 95 in Hampton one afternoon in February 2019 when he began following a car he found suspicious, a Toyota Camry with tinted windows and Connecticut plates.
“The vehicle had drawn my attention to it due to how clean it was, given the age of the vehicle and current weather conditions in New England,” Wilber wrote in a police report.
Michael Vazquez didn’t know why a New Hampshire state trooper was pulling him over one afternoon in August 2018. He’d been driving his BMW on Interstate 93 in Salem, doing the speed limit.
Trooper Michael Arteaga told Vazquez he was tailgating another vehicle. But he had other reasons for the stop.
A judge has ordered N.H. State Police to release personnel records about a former state trooper fired for misconduct, holding that the public has a “substantial” interest in knowing more about his actions and how the agency investigated him.
Fighting to get his job back, a former state trooper fired for misconduct admitted Wednesday to illegally searching civilians’ phones, mishandling physical evidence and writing a deficient arrest report, but adamantly denied lying about it during an internal-affairs investigation.
It’s a common tactic: a police officer gets a hunch about a vehicle, uses a minor traffic violation to pull it over and questions the driver about their travels, checking out suspicions that have nothing to do with traffic safety. In states around the country, officials are reconsidering whether it’s a good idea. It’s unclear if New Hampshire safety officials are following suit.