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PATC Article Detail
Title:
Anonymous Tips In the School Setting
Author:
Jack Ryan
ID:
LL98
Issue:
SU1-4
Issue Date:
2004-07-01
Edition:
School
Type:
Article
Body:
In Florida v. J.L., 529 U.S. 266 (2000), the United States Supreme Court concluded that an anonymous tip that did not predict future conduct which the police would be able to corroborate before taking action would be insufficient to establish reasonable suspicion on which to base a stop. The Court did note that the opinion may not apply to areas such as ìairports and schoolsî where there is a diminished expectation of 4th Amendment privacy rights.
The facts in J.L. are worth summarizing to gain an understanding of the difficulty this ruling presents. Police received a call describing a young black male at a bus stop that was in possession of a gun. A police officer drove to the bus stop and observed a male wearing the clothing as described. The officer approached the subject, J.L., and reached into J.L.ís waistband leading to the seizure of a handgun. In reviewing this case, the Court ruled that the anonymous tip here did not satisfy reasonable suspicion since anyone who had observed J.L. standing on the corner could have dropped a dime to the police in order to see J.L. be harassed. A question that is raised by J.L. is how courts will look at school programs that encourage students to pass along anonymous tips to school resource officers and school officials. A case from the Supreme Court of Hawaii analyzed an anonymous tip from the ìCrime-Stoppersî program at the Kapaa High School. In the Interest of Doe, 91 P.3d 485 (HI 2004). In November of 2002, Officer Ozaki, who was assigned to Kapaa High School as an on-campus police officer, received an anonymous tip directly from crime-stoppers regarding a student who was alleged to be in possession of marijuana and selling the marijuana at school. Officer Ozaki passed this information to the vice principal, Dianne Ayre, though he did not tell her the origin of the information. Vice Principal Ayre directed security to the studentís classroom, but he was not there. She then instructed security to watch for the student, but not approach him because he had run in the past. Security officers spotted the student as he returned to campus but did not immediately approach him because of the fear that he would run. Officer Ozaki was called to assist in directing the student to the office and was the first one to have contact with him. Once the student was brought into the principalís office, he was given an explanation as to why he was there. The student became agitated and tried to leave. He was then searched by security officers and some marijuana and some cash was seized. He was then charged with the drug-related offenses. The trial court suppressed the evidence and the prosecution appealed. The court, citing Florida v. J.L., upheld the trial courtís suppression of the evidence. In doing so the court point out that the did not provide the identity or status of the informer, the time the tip came in, or the basis of the informantís knowledge. It is important to note that an anonymous tip involving weapons may be treated differently in the school setting as the Court of Appeals (3rd District, Austin) of Texas recently pointed out. In the Matter of K.C.B., 2004 Tex. App. LEXIS 6256 (Ct.App. 3rd, Austin, 2004). In K.C.B., a hall monitor received a tip that a student, K.C.B. had a plastic bag containing marijuana, in his underwear. K.C.B. was taken to an office where, after being ordered to pull up his shirt, the school officials observed a plastic bag protruding from his waistband. He was subsequently taken to Deputy Salazar, the school resource officer, and arrested for possession of marijuana. Consistently with Doe case from Hawaii, the Texas court concluded, based on the J.L. case that the marijuana should be suppressed since the anonymous tip was insufficient to establish reasonable suspicion. The court noted that an anonymous tip must provide more than just ìeasily observable factsî in order to establish some indication of reliability. More importantly, the court pointed out that language from J.L. suggested that a frisk for weapons, based upon an anonymous tip similar to the one outlined in J.L. may justify a search in some cases. The Supreme Court specifically suggested that such a case may exist in an ìairportî or a ìschool.î The Texas court suggested that where an uncorroborated anonymous tip involves a weapon in the school setting, the balance shifts in favor of taking action and conducting the search. The court went to hold: ìThe presence of drugs on a student, however, does not tip the balance far enough for the search in this case to be justified at its inception. Immediacy of action is not as necessary as could be found with a tip regarding a weapon.îKEY POINT: Anonymous tip concerning a weapon in school is different from a similar tip outside the school setting.
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