State v. Price (2nd District Court of Appeals, October 21st, 2011).

Normally we think that an Off-duty police officer, outside his jurisdiction, could not pull someone over they suspected of DUI (being under the influence of alcohol or drugs) and arrest them.

However, the Courts in Florida say that an Off-duty officer could properly make a citizen's stop of defendant's car using the patrol car's lights and he could properly detain defendant while wearing his police uniform, as neither of these actions violated the “color of office” doctrine. 

The "Color of Office" prevents law enforcement officials from using the powers of their office to observe unlawful activity or gain access to evidence not available to private citizen; this doctrine is not applicable because the activity observed by officer, namely defendant's driving, could be observed by any private citizen driving on the interstate, and officer observed that defendant's car made wide turn, drifting off to the left of the white line, that defendant's car sped up to approximately eighty miles an hour when it got on interstate, but it then began to slow down, speed up, and slow down again, and that defendant's car drifted between lanes.

This case is similar to Edwards v. State,462 So.2d 581, 582 (Fla. 4th DCA 1985), in which the Fourth District noted that “at common law, a private citizen may arrest a person who in the citizen's presence commits a felony or breach of the peace, or a felony having occurred, the citizen believes this person committed it.” In Edwards, the court held that the appellant's conduct amounted to a breach of the peace where he was driving his pickup truck in a dangerous fashion. Id.In that case, an off-duty officer followed the appellant for about five miles and observed his truck cross the center line three to seven times, which caused approaching drivers to run onto the berm, and also observed the appellant's truck come close to hitting a bridge abutment. Id. The officer approached the appellant after the stop and detained him. Id. The Edwards court held that the stop of the appellant's car was lawful and the court noted that the off-duty officer's identification of himself as such and his offer to show the appellant his badge did not amount to acting under color of office. Id.