Facts
- Miami–Dade police received an anonymous call reporting that a young Black male at a specified bus stop wearing a plaid shirt was carrying a gun.
- Officers went to the bus stop and saw three Black males; J.L. was wearing a plaid shirt.
- Officers observed no suspicious behavior, no unusual movements, and no firearm; apart from the tip, they had no reason to suspect illegal conduct.
- An officer frisked J.L. and found a gun in his pocket.
- J.L., a juvenile, was charged with carrying a concealed firearm without a license and possessing a firearm while under 18.
- A trial court suppressed the gun; an intermediate appellate court reversed; the Florida Supreme Court held the search invalid; the U.S. Supreme Court granted review.
Issues
- Whether an anonymous tip that a person is carrying a gun, without additional indicia of reliability, provides reasonable suspicion under Terry v. Ohio to justify a stop and frisk.
Decision
- The Supreme Court unanimously affirmed the Florida Supreme Court and held the search unconstitutional.
- An anonymous tip that a person is carrying a gun is not sufficient, without more, to justify a Terry stop and frisk.
- The Court declined to recognize a general “firearm exception” to the reasonable-suspicion requirement.
- The Court left open whether extraordinary threats could justify different treatment on different facts.
Legal Principles
- A Terry stop and protective frisk require reasonable suspicion that criminal activity may be afoot and that the person may be armed and dangerous.
- An anonymous tip must contain sufficient indicia of reliability to support reasonable suspicion; reliability commonly depends on police ability to test the informant’s knowledge or credibility, including through predictive information.
- A tip’s accurate identification of a person’s location and appearance is insufficient unless the tip is also reliable in its assertion of illegality.
- Allegations involving firearms do not, by themselves, reduce the Fourth Amendment reliability showing required for a stop and frisk.
Conclusion
Because the officers acted on an uncorroborated anonymous tip that lacked predictive detail or other indicators of reliability regarding illegal conduct, the stop and frisk violated the Fourth Amendment, and the gun was properly suppressed.