## Facts

- Westerly, Rhode Island police received a call from resident Nunzio Gaccione reporting a recent fight and that he had been warned two African-American men were being sent to his home “with a gun.”
- Gaccione told Officer Darren Fiore he had just seen a small gray or black vehicle with two African-American men drive by and believed they were the men referenced in the warning.
- Fiore, who knew individuals connected to the dispute from prior disturbances and possible drug activity, broadcast a lookout for a small gray or black vehicle with two Black men, possibly armed, tied to threats at the Gaccione complex.
- Fiore soon saw a gray car driven by Bernard Flowers, a Black man, followed it, activated his lights, and conducted a traffic stop; two other officers arrived as backup.
- Using a loudspeaker, Fiore ordered Flowers to show his hands, exit, and walk backward with hands raised; the officers had firearms drawn.
- Fiore frisked and handcuffed Flowers and placed him in the rear of a police cruiser.
- The other officers searched the vehicle and found no weapon or contraband.
- Fiore explained the reported threat; Flowers accused Fiore of racial profiling.
- The encounter lasted about fifteen minutes; Flowers was released without charges.

## Issues

1. Whether the officers had reasonable suspicion to stop Flowers’s vehicle based on the reported threat and description.
2. Whether drawing firearms, handcuffing Flowers, placing him in a cruiser, and briefly searching the vehicle converted the encounter into a de facto arrest requiring probable cause.
3. Whether the protective search of the vehicle during the detention was permissible under the Fourth Amendment.

## Decision

- The First Circuit affirmed summary judgment for the officers and the Town of Westerly.
- The court held the stop was supported by reasonable suspicion under the totality of the circumstances.
- The court held the officers’ safety measures and the stop’s duration did not transform the encounter into a de facto arrest.
- The court treated the vehicle search as a reasonable protective measure tied to the reported presence of a gun.
- Because no constitutional violation was found, the § 1983 municipal claim failed, and summary judgment on related claims was upheld.

## Legal Principles

- An investigatory stop is lawful when officers can point to specific, articulable facts that, combined with rational inferences, create reasonable suspicion of criminal activity under the totality of the circumstances.
- Reasonable suspicion tolerates imperfect or incomplete information; minor discrepancies between a reported description and the observed suspect do not necessarily defeat a stop.
- Officer-safety measures—such as drawing weapons, using handcuffs, employing backup, and temporarily placing a suspect in a police cruiser—may be reasonable within a Terry stop when officers reasonably suspect the person may be armed and dangerous.
- The line between a stop and an arrest turns on the reasonableness and proportionality of the intrusion, including the perceived threat and the detention’s duration.
- A municipality is not liable under § 1983 absent an underlying constitutional violation by its officers.

## Conclusion

The court upheld a brief, highly restrictive roadside detention as a permissible Terry stop because officers had reasonable suspicion of an imminent, armed threat and used safety measures the court found proportionate to that risk; without a Fourth Amendment violation, the municipal § 1983 claim also failed.


Flowers v. Fiore, 359 F.3d 24 (1st Cir. 2004)