## Facts

- Kenneth Dilworth, a 15-year-old student, attended a public alternative high school for students with behavioral disorders.
- The school employed a full-time liaison officer, Detective Francis Ruettiger, a sworn Joliet police officer assigned to the school as a staff member to prevent criminal activity and maintain order.
- Teachers reported a rumor that another student, Deshawn Weeks, planned to sell drugs at school the next day.
- The following day, Ruettiger searched Weeks and found no drugs.
- Shortly thereafter, Ruettiger observed Weeks and Dilworth at Weeks’s locker, “giggling and talking” in a way Ruettiger interpreted as suggesting they had “fooled” him.
- Ruettiger noticed Dilworth holding a flashlight, which he had never seen other students bring to school, and suspected it contained drugs.
- Ruettiger took the flashlight, opened it, and found cocaine hidden under the batteries.
- Dilworth was taken to the police station and later admitted he intended to sell the drugs.
- After a bench trial, Dilworth was convicted of unlawful possession of cocaine with intent to deliver on school property.
- The trial court denied Dilworth’s motion to suppress; the appellate court reversed; the Illinois Supreme Court granted review.

## Issues

1. Whether a full-time school liaison police officer’s search of a student on school grounds is governed by the reasonable suspicion standard applicable to school officials under *New Jersey v. T.L.O.* or the probable cause standard for ordinary police searches.
2. Whether, under the correct standard, the search of Dilworth’s flashlight was reasonable in inception and scope under the Fourth Amendment.

## Decision

- The Illinois Supreme Court reversed the appellate court and reinstated Dilworth’s conviction.
- The court held that the *T.L.O.* reasonable suspicion standard applied because the liaison officer functioned as part of the school staff and acted in furtherance of school safety and discipline.
- The court held Ruettiger had reasonable suspicion, based on the teachers’ report, the observed interaction after the unsuccessful search of Weeks, and the unusual presence of the flashlight.
- The court held the search’s scope was reasonable because opening the flashlight was a limited intrusion directed at the specific item suspected of concealing contraband.

## Legal Principles

- Searches of students at public schools may be conducted on reasonable suspicion, not probable cause, when undertaken to further school discipline and safety and when reasonably related in scope to the circumstances justifying the search.
- A sworn police officer assigned full time to a school as a liaison and functioning as school staff may be treated as a school official for Fourth Amendment purposes when the search is closely tied to school order and discipline rather than a traditional law-enforcement investigation.
- Reasonable suspicion is assessed under the totality of the circumstances and requires specific, articulable facts suggesting a moderate chance that contraband or evidence of wrongdoing will be found.
- A school search must be limited to measures reasonably related to the search’s objectives and not excessively intrusive in light of the student’s age and the nature of the suspected infraction.

## Conclusion

The Illinois Supreme Court held that a full-time school liaison officer acting as part of school staff may search a student on reasonable suspicion under *T.L.O.*, and that the officer reasonably searched Dilworth’s flashlight based on reported drug-selling activity, suspicious post-search behavior, and the unusual item believed to conceal drugs.


People v. Dilworth, 661 N.E.2d 310 (Ill. 1996)