Page:Jackson v. State, 2013 Ark. 201, 427 S.W.3d 607.pdf/7

 our case law has consistently held that a stop is not concluded when the officer has not returned the license, paperwork, or ticket. In Yarbrough v. State, 370 Ark. 31, 257 S.W.3d 50 (2007), we noted that during the course of this encounter, the police officer determined that he was going to give the appellant a warning for the traffic violation; but, before doing so, he asked the appellant for his consent to search the vehicle. The court specifically noted that at the time the officer received consent to search, the officer had neither returned the appellant's identification papers to him, nor given him a copy of the warning. Ultimately, the court concluded that the officer's request for consent to search after he had determined he was going to write a warning was appropriate when he had not yet returned the driver's papers or issued the warning. Id.; see also Sims, 356 Ark. 507, 157 S.W.3d 530 (holding that the legitimate purpose of the traffic stop has ended after the officer hands back the driver's license and registration, along with a warning ticket).

In this case, Jackson does not challenge and, in fact, concedes that Corporal Behnke had probable cause to initiate the traffic stop. He argues that the ensuing detention was illegal because the purpose of the stop had been completed before the officer deployed K-9 Major. We disagree. At the suppression hearing, Corporal Behnke testified that after running the driver's licenses of both Jackson and Maysonet and checking the vehicle's VIN number, he began writing a warning ticket that he planned to issue unless the check of their licenses revealed any warrants. According to Corporal Behnke, he was still waiting for a return of criminal-history checks from ACIC for one of the men at the time he deployed K-9 Major. Moreover, he had not delivered a warning citation to the driver, nor had Maysonet signed