Can Police Officers Stop You on the Street and Frisk You for Drugs?
If you have ever been stopped by a police officer on the street and asked questions, you may wonder if the police can frisk you for drugs without your permission. In criminal law, this kind of search is referred to as a “stop and frisk”. It is legal to search you on the street, but only under certain circumstances.
What Is Stop and Frisk?
The law allowing police to stop and frisk people on the street came from a Supreme Court case called Terry v. Ohio. (392 U.S. 1 (1968).) In the case decision, the Supreme Court found that all stop-and-frisk searches must comply with the Fourth Amendment. The Fourth Amendment prohibits unreasonable search and seizures. In other words, police cannot search you on the street unreasonably.
A reasonable stop-and-frisk happens when “a reasonably prudent officer is warranted in the circumstances of a given case in believing that his safety or that of others is endangered”. If so, he “may make a reasonable search for weapons of the person believed by him to be armed and dangerous.” (Terry, 392 U.S. at 2.)
In practice, the police need to have some kind of reasonable suspicion that:
- A crime has been committed by the person about to be searched,
- A crime is being committed by the person about to be searched, or
- A crime is about to be committed by the person about to be searched.
The reasonable suspicion cannot develop as a result of the search. Instead, the officer must have some articulable suspicion before the search starts.
How Does Stop and Frisk Work in Real Life?
Despite the “reasonable suspicion” requirement explained in the Terry case, police routinely stop and frisk people because they look a certain way. This physical appearance may have nothing to do with a crime being committed. If the person searched can show that there was no reasonable suspicion underlying the search, any illegal drugs recovered during the search may be thrown out as evidence.
Sometimes, though, the police can show a reasonable suspicion – such as by seeing obvious drug paraphernalia sticking out of a suspect’s pocket, spotting a person disturbing the peace or acting intoxicated in public, or finding evidence from witnesses or crime scenes. If so, then any evidence of a crime found during a stop-and-frisk can be used against the person searched in court.
Have you been stopped and frisked in Oklahoma? Clint Patterson, Esq., of Patterson Law Firm, a former Tulsa prosecutor, uses his trial experience and knowledge of drug laws to defend Oklahomans. He has the experience and the insight to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your case. To schedule a case evaluation, visit Patterson Law Firm online or call Clint’s office at (918) 550-9175.