## Facts

- Around 9:45 p.m., two police officers were dispatched to investigate a report of reckless motorcycle driving in an area described as an active gang area.
- On arrival, an officer observed a motorcycle pulling away from the curb in front of a house known for gang activity.
- The officers made a U-turn intending to conduct a traffic stop; the motorcycle pulled to the curb without the officers using lights, a siren, or other signals.
- As the officers approached, the driver held out what appeared to be a driver’s license.
- Frank V., the passenger, looked straight ahead and kept both hands in the front pockets of a bulky leather jacket.
- An officer ordered Frank to remove his hands from his pockets; Frank complied but then attempted to put his hands back in, and was told to keep them out.
- The officer conducted a patdown frisk of Frank and found a gun in Frank’s right front jacket pocket.
- In juvenile wardship proceedings, the court denied Frank’s motion to suppress the gun and placed him on probation with gang-related terms, including a condition that he not associate with anyone disapproved of by his probation officer.

## Issues

1. Whether the officers unlawfully detained Frank in violation of the Fourth Amendment such that the gun discovered during the patdown should have been suppressed.
2. Whether the probation condition prohibiting Frank from associating with anyone disapproved of by his probation officer was unconstitutionally overbroad as a restriction on association.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeal affirmed the juvenile court’s denial of the motion to suppress.
- The court held that the encounter and subsequent detention and frisk were lawful under Fourth Amendment standards governing investigatory contacts, detentions, and protective frisks.
- The court affirmed the probation condition barring association with persons disapproved by the probation officer, finding it a permissible juvenile probation condition related to rehabilitation and public safety.
- The juvenile wardship judgment and all challenged probation conditions were affirmed.

## Legal Principles

- Police-citizen contacts are commonly analyzed as: (1) consensual encounters requiring no objective justification; (2) detentions requiring reasonable suspicion based on specific, articulable facts; and (3) arrests requiring probable cause.
- A protective patdown frisk is permitted when, under the totality of circumstances, an officer reasonably believes a person may be armed and dangerous; relevant circumstances may include time, location (including a high-crime or gang area), and the person’s conduct and gestures.
- Juvenile courts have broad discretion to impose probation conditions that are reasonably related to the sustained offense or to preventing future criminality, reflecting the juvenile system’s rehabilitative aims.
- Association restrictions, including limits keyed to a probation officer’s disapproval, may be valid when directed at deterring gang involvement and reducing recidivism and when justified by the minor’s circumstances.

## Conclusion

The court upheld both the seizure of a firearm found during a protective patdown in a motorcycle-related investigatory encounter and a juvenile probation condition restricting association with persons disapproved by the probation officer, concluding each was lawful and reasonably tied to rehabilitative and safety objectives.


In re Frank V., 233 Cal. App. 3d 1232, 285 Cal. Rptr. 16 (Cal. Ct. App. 1991)