Insufficient Anonymity

By Lance Hester; April 2000

     The U.S. Supreme Court recently held that an anonymous tip to police that a person is carrying a firearm is not enough to allow police to instigate a Terry-style “stop and frisk”-type search.

     In the case before the Supreme Court, Florida v. J.L., ___ U.S. ___,  No. 98-1993, (March 28, 2000), a purely anonymous tipster called the Miami-Dade Police and reported that a young black male standing at a particular bus stop was wearing a plaid shirt and was carrying a gun.  Two officers responded, saw three black males hanging around, and noted J.L. was wearing a plaid shirt.  Based only on the above information, one of the officers frisked J.L. and seized a gun from J.L.’s pocket.  The other two were frisked as well, and nothing was seized from them. 

     J.L., a juvenile, was charged under Florida state law with carrying a concealed firearm without a license and possessing a firearm while under the age of 18.  J.L. moved to suppress the gun as the fruit of an unlawful search.  The trial court agreed with J.L. and suppressed.  The appellate court reversed, and the Supreme Court of Florida affirmed the trial court and held the search invalid under the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

     The U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari and affirmed the Florida Supreme Court.

     In its decision, the U.S. Supreme Court began with a Terry stop analysis under Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (1968).  The Court recognized that under Terry, a police officer may conduct “a carefully limited search of the outer clothing” of persons the officer observes and consequently reasonably concludes that criminal activity may be afoot and that the persons with whom he is dealing may be armed and presently dangerous.  The rational for the Terry  decision is officer safety. 

     The issue in the case before the Supreme Court naturally involved the Terry decision analysis, but also addressed the important issues of anonymous tips and whether the tip and the tipster have any indicia of reliability. 

     Citing Alabama v. White, 496 U.S.

325, 329 (1990), the court pointed out “an anonymous tip alone seldom demonstrates the informant’s basis of knowledge or veracity.” Id. The Court went on to contrast J.L.’s case with White because in White police observations led to a reasonable conclusion that a tipster had inside knowledge about a suspect and was therefore credible.  In J.L.’s case the court concluded that “the tip … lacked the moderate indicia of reliability present in White and essential to the Court’s decision in that case.  The anonymous call concerning J.L. provided no predictive information and therefore left the police without means to test the informant’s knowledge or credibility.”

     Florida further asked the Court to modify Terry to include a “firearm exception” and allow tips alleging an illegal gun to justify a Terry stop.  The Court declined to recognize the proposed exception.