CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – The New Hampshire Supreme Court is giving police a set of guidelines for using anonymous tips to stop drivers.

The court allows police to act on anonymous tips of reckless or drunken driving if the tipster gives enough information that officers are certain they are stopping the right car; if police locate the vehicle soon after the tip; and if the tip is detailed enough to infer that the tipster has witnessed a driving offense.

The ruling is based on the case of a Massachusetts woman charged with drunken driving after an unidentified caller told police the woman’s truck was all over the road in April 2003. A state trooper had not observed any erratic driving, but arrested the woman based on the cell phone tip.

A district court judge threw out the case, ruling the stop violated the woman’s rights. The judge had ruled that the tipster had no established record of accurate tips to bolster his allegations, that it was unclear the tipster personally saw the alleged manner of driving, and that the allegation that the truck was “all over the road” was too general in nature.

The state appealed and the high court sent the case back, with the guidelines.

“Police have to be able to rely on these tips,” said state Assistant Attorney General Susan McGinnis. “Drunk drivers pose a terrible risk to other drivers. If (police officers) can’t rely on these tips, their hands are tied.”

Michael Bowser, a Nashua-based attorney who represents the woman, said he looks forward to arguing the facts of the case within the new framework.

“It appears to be a very thoughtful decision, and it gives police far more guidance,” he said.

McGinnis said that unlike tips received about criminal activities that call for a greater scrutiny of the circumstances behind the anonymous tip, a complaint about driving has a more general standard.

“Driving is something done in public, that anyone can observe,” she said. “Whereas with drugs, whether it’s going to be in a car is not something done publicly. Driving is something visible.”