Defining Reasonable Suspicion: Anon Tips Flashcards
Florida v. J.L (Not enough)
: Police received anonymous tip that a man matching J.L.’s description had a gun at bus stop. Officers stopped and frisked J.L., found a gun. Officers had NO other reason to believe he was carrying a The tip came from an unknown location by an unknown caller.
Unlike Alabama v. White, Tip here was NOT reliable. - Anonymous tip in this case “lacked the moderate indicia of reliability present in White and essential to the Court’s decision in that case”
an anon tip alone seldom demonstrates the informant’s basis of knowledge or veracity. An accurate description of a suspect readily observable is NOT ENOUGH to show tipster has knowledge of concealed criminal activity.
an anonymous tip describing a subject’s readily observable location/appearance doesn’t show the tipster has knowledge of concealed criminal activity.
Alabama v. White (Threshold Case)
case involved tip that Vanessa White would be leaving specific address at a particular time in a brown Plymouth station wagon with right taillight lens broken, that she would be going to dobey’s motel and in possession of about 1 oz of cocaine inside a brown attache case. Police observed her leave at the time, enter the station wagon, and travel route to motel and police stopped her.
Court noted that reasonable suspicion is less demanding than PC not only in sense that it can be est. with info that is diff in quantity or content than that req to est PC, but also in sense that reasonable suspicion can arise from info less reliable than req to show PC
under the totality of the circumstances, the anon tip being corroborated = sufficient indicia of reliability to justify the investigatory stop of respondent’s car. [threshold case]
an anonymous tip requires sufficient indicia of reliability to provide reasonable suspicion to make the investigatory stop—i.e., demonstrating the tipster has some knowledge of concealed criminal activity.
How to Distinguish White from J.L?
- White = borderline case – the tip alone was not enough and the police observations which corroborated the info made it reasonable to think that the tipster has inside knowledge about the suspect and therefore to credit the assertion of the cocaine.
- JL = the anon call provided no predictive info, and left police without means to test knowledge or credibility.
o White was close – this one def below the threshold set by White
But see: Navarette v. CA (2014)
an anonymous tip that a drunk driver nearly ran the tipster off the road has the indicia of reliability b/c of the totality of the circumstances (i.e., the tipster was an eyewitness and called immediately after), thus justifying the police to stop the driver w/o first independently corroborating drunken/reckless driving behavior).
This call was sufficient – it had “ADEQUATE INDICIA OF RELIABILITY” for officer to credit the caller’s account - officer justified in proceeding, from viewpoint of the objective reasonable police officer - there was reasonable suspicion of drunk driving and therefore the stop was proper
How to distinguish JL from Navarette? (911 calls)
- JL: physical description. Identity, absence assertion of illegality ≠ reasonable suspicion
- Navarette: geographical description + conduct [assuming drunk driving] = reasonable suspicion
