It did seem odd that BK was given a citation for not wearing a seat belt in the first place, and to be pulled over around midnight when it was dark for something like that.
"It is not clear what Mr Kohberger was doing in the area at the time – just 1.7 miles and a five-minute drive from the home on King Road where Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were stabbed to death on 13 November after returning from a night out.'
Bryan Kohberger was stopped by police minutes from Idaho murders home in August
Maybe LE had seen his car driving around late at night (more than once?) since he arrived in town in August (BK's seat belt violation was August 21, 2022 -- see link above), or idling, or some vehicle behavior that wasn't similar to a local coming and going directly from point A to point B, and added to that he had OOS license plates, so they pulled him over to see what he was up to.
Idaho state law on seat belt use indicates someone can not be pulled over just for a missing seat belt, though:
"CHAPTER 6
RULES OF THE ROAD
49-673. SAFETY RESTRAINT USE. (1) Except as provided in section 49-672, Idaho Code, and subsection (2) of this section, each occupant of a motor vehicle that has a gross vehicle weight of not more than eight thousand (8,000) pounds, and that was manufactured with safety restraints in compliance with federal motor vehicle safety standard no. 208, shall have a safety restraint properly fastened about the occupant’s body at all times when the vehicle is in motion.
... [...] ...
BBM:
(5) Enforcement of this section by law enforcement officers may be accomplished only as a secondary action when the operator of the motor vehicle has been detained for a suspected violation of another law."
Section 49-673 – Idaho State Legislature
So LE must have suspected BK of some violation of another law.
IMO:
I wonder if LE gave him the ticket (instead of a warning?) to document his vehicle's presence & so he would get the hint that his presence in the area late at night 10 miles from his home in a neighboring town was being noted.
Because they could not prove he had "violated another law" which was the underlying reason for pulling him over and giving him the seat belt citation.
LE in his own town of Pullman must have known of him (BK's LE internship request was within a few weeks or months of the seat belt violation -- see link below) since:
"He submitted his application to the police department at some point during the fall semester, when he took his first semester of classes at WSU after graduating from DeSales University with a master’s degree in psychology and cloud-based forensics in June 2022.
"Kohberger wrote in his essay he had interest in assisting rural law enforcement agencies with how to better collect and analyze technological data in public safety operations," an arrest affidavit states."
BBM: "Kohberger wrote in his essay he had interest in assisting rural law enforcement agencies with how to better collect and analyze technological data in public safety operations," an arrest affidavit states."
IMO "Wouldn't He Just"... ...be "interested" in this! ^^^^^^^^^^^ IMO
I wonder if it (BK's proposed work under the proposed internship) would have given him access to their data, and LE was like, "thanks but no thanks", and his credentials did not indicate his assistance was warranted or welcome. JMO
Idaho murders: Bryan Kohberger applied for internship at Pullman Police Department in fall 2022
Maybe local LE's hinky meters were up about BK from their initial interaction at the time of the seat belt citation, which was the same month (August) he arrived in town, or even before. It hasn't been clear IMO whether his cell phone pinged in Moscow between June when he bought it & August when he moved there.
But he could have come out to ID to scope things out for his move prior to August. In the press conference on December 30, 2022 in PA after BK had been arrested there, and all the different LE representatives spoke about the investigation, 1st Assistant DA Mancuso said (at about the 10 minute 22 second point in the video) something along the lines of LE there in PA looking into any
back ground on BK's activities in PA both after & prior to the murders.
Watch: Pennsylvania State Police news conference on Bryan Kohberger arrest in Idaho murders
Presumably, they're trying to suss out what BK's activities/movements were for the months leading up to the crimes that he may have been in the area or back in PA between:
June when he buys the cell phone that later pings around the victims' home and
November when the murders were committed
JMO