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In Florida v. J.L., 529 U.S. 266 (2000),
the United States Supreme Court examined the use of anonymous
tips by police officers. In J.L., the police received an
anonymous call that a black male, wearing a plaid shirt,
and standing at a bus stop had a handgun in his pocket.
An officer responded to the scene, and without any further
corroboration, the officer reached into J.L.’s pocket
and seized the gun. The Court held that an anonymous tip
of this nature, that merely describes a subject in a particular
location, does not satisfy the reasonable suspicion necessary
to justify a frisk.
In J.L., the Court distinguished, Alabama
v. White, 496 U.S. 325 (1990), where the Court found that
an anonymous
tip that predicts future conduct that the police can corroborate
before a stop will satisfy the reasonable suspicion standard.
In White, the caller indicated that a woman named White
would be leaving a specific address, at a specific time,
in a specific vehicle, in possession of briefcase containing
drugs. The caller further indicated that White would be
going to a specific hotel with the drugs. The police conducted
a surveillance of the location and observed White leave
at the predicted time in the predicted vehicle. White
drove toward the predicted hotel at which point she was
stopped.
The Court upheld the stop in this case after finding that
the anonymous tipster showed intimate knowledge of White
by the caller’s ability to predict White’s
future conduct.
Some recent cases based on anonymous tips
provide some
guidance on this issue. In Johnson v. Texas, 146 S.W.3d
719 (Texas Ct. Appeals 6th Dist. Texarkarna 2004), a Texas
appellate court examined an anonymous tip concerning narcotics
sales. “The caller told police a black man, accompanied
by two black females, driving a 1999 black Ford Taurus with
a specified license plate number, was involved in possible
drug activity at a specified apartment complex. The officer
testified the apartment complex in question was known to
be a place that regularly had “drug deals and drug
activity” occurring.” Based on this information
the officer responded to the area and stopped Johnson’s
vehicle. Johnson was alone in the vehicle at the time of
the stop.
In analyzing whether the officer had a sufficient
basis to stop this vehicle, the court took notice of the
following
points: “A mere anonymous tip, standing alone, does
not constitute probable cause…An anonymous telephone
call may justify the initiation of an investigation, but
the court has held that, alone, it will rarely establish
the level of suspicion to justify a detention…The
corroboration of the details which do not indicate criminal
activity will not lend support to the anonymous tip…Reasonable
suspicion requires it [the anonymous tip] be reliable in
its assertion of illegality, not just in its tendency to
identify a determinate person…When more information
is available, [that may be corroborated before the stop]
however, a police officer may reasonably conclude the tip
is reliable, thus justifying an investigatory detention.” The
officer in this case testified that the sole basis for the
stop in this case was the anonymous tip coupled with the
officer’s knowledge of the area. The court, in rejecting
the validity of the stop concluded that the officer had
no information which provided corroboration that Johnson
was the fruit of the poisonous tree.
As a practical matter,
officers must recognize that when a car is stopped,
as in Johnson, a seizure has occurred,
thus eliminating the possibility of a consensual contact.
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Details & Ordering
Overview:
The tenth edition of Criminal Investigation: Basic
Investigation was written to reflect changes in the field of criminal investigation.
Together,
the authors of Criminal Investigation: Basic Perspectives have in excess
of fifty years of law enforcement experience with a variety of agencies
such as the United States Postal Inspection Service, the United States Marshal’s
Service, the Sacramento Sheriff’s Department, the New York Police Department
and the California State Police. From this perspective the authors have written
a well-balanced, comprehensive text on criminal investigation.
Details & Ordering
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