D.Mass.: Frisk justified of a known gang member in a high crime area getting out of car with his hand in his pocket

Defendant was in a high crime area and known to be a member of a violent street gang. When he got out of a vehicle with a hand in his coat pocket, a frisk was justified. United States v. Vargas, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19252 (D.Mass. February 18, 2015):

Officers may briefly and proportionately detain an individual when those officers have probable cause to believe that he has violated a civil ordinance, and this principle applies independent of suspicion of criminal activity. See Whren v. United States, 517 U.S. 806, 819 (1996) (violation of traffic ordinance); McKoy, 402 F. Supp. 2d at 313 n.3 (same). …

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Police need not be certain that an individual is armed or dangerous in order to legally pat-frisk that individual. See Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 27 (1968). Instead, the evidence must only demonstrate that “a reasonably prudent man in the circumstances would be warranted in the belief that his safety or that of others was in danger.” Id. The facts in the moments leading up to the frisk must be analyzed objectively and under the totality of the circumstances known to the officer at the time of the pat-frisk. See United States v. Shaw, 874 F. Supp. 2d 13, 24 (D. Mass. 2012); see also Illinois v. Wardlow, 528 U.S. 119, 127 (2000) (in its evaluation, court must look at “the whole picture” (internal quotation marks and corresponding citation omitted)).

In this analysis, a court may consider an officer’s knowledge pertaining to a defendant’s prior violent criminal conduct, known gang affiliation, and proclicivity for carrying a firearm. …