UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT

┐ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, │ Plaintiff-Appellee, │ > No. 23-5344 │ v. │ │ NATHANIEL T. TAYLOR, │ Defendant-Appellant. │ ┘ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Knoxville. No. 3:20-cr-00020-1—Katherine A. Crytzer, District Judge.

Decided and Filed: November 15, 2024

Before: COLE, MATHIS, and BLOOMEKATZ, Circuit Judges. _________________

COUNSEL ON BRIEF: Jarrod J. Beck, LAW OFFICE OF JARROD J. BECK, Lexington, Kentucky, for Appellant. Luke A. McLaurin, UNITED STATES ATTORNEY’S OFFICE, Knoxville, Tennessee, for Appellee. _________________

OPINION _________________

MATHIS, Circuit Judge. A police officer stopped Nathaniel Taylor for speeding on an interstate in Knoxville, Tennessee. Based on Taylor’s supposed suspicious activities during the traffic stop, the officer requested a K-9 unit to conduct a dog sniff. The dog sniff suggested the presence of drugs in Taylor’s vehicle. This gave law enforcement probable cause to search Taylor’s vehicle. The search did not uncover drugs. But it did lead to the discovery of a firearm, No. 23-5344 United States v. Taylor Page 2

which presented a problem for Taylor because, as a felon, he could not lawfully possess a firearm.

After a grand jury indicted Taylor for being a felon in possession of a firearm, he moved to suppress evidence from the search that led to the discovery of the firearm, arguing that the officer did not have reasonable suspicion to detain him beyond the time necessary to issue him a traffic citation. The district court denied Taylor’s motion to suppress. Taylor appeals the denial. Because the officer did not have reasonable suspicion to prolong the traffic stop, we reverse the district court’s denial of Taylor’s motion to suppress.

I.

At all pertinent times, Officer Kristen Cox worked in the traffic services unit of the Knoxville Police Department’s drug interdiction team. In that role, Officer Cox spent most of her time patrolling the interstate in the Knoxville, Tennessee, area “stopping cars all day long . . . looking for any narcotics or criminal activity.” R. 25, PageID 185.

On January 21, 2019, Officer Cox stopped Taylor for speeding on Interstate 275. Officer Cox’s dashcam video captured the salient points of the stop. It began as a routine traffic stop. Officer Cox walked to the passenger side of Taylor’s vehicle and told Taylor that she stopped him because he was driving 69 miles per hour, 14 miles per hour above the speed limit. Taylor volunteered information that he was coming from a job interview at a nearby Culver’s restaurant. Officer Cox did not ask Taylor where he was headed, and he did not offer that detail. She asked for his license and proof of insurance. Taylor handed his license to Officer Cox, but he struggled to locate his insurance information. Taylor initially reached into his glove box to find his insurance paperwork and then quickly checked his center console.