N.D.Cal.: Waving money and looking nervous on a street corner was RS to a trained narcotics officer

A police officer stopping behind an already parked car isn’t a stop of the person who is free to walk away, United States v. Kim, 25 F.3d 1426 (9th Cir. 1994), but it is of the car. Here, officers had reasonable suspicion defendant was attempting to engage in drug transactions. “Here, the Government offers a list of particularized and objective reasons that the officers believed that a drug transaction was taking place. … The Court finds many of these reasons compelling. First, Millbrook was observed standing at the street corner waiving money and beckoning in a manner familiar to the officers as indicating a drug transaction. … Second, Sergeant Cowans reported that Millbrook ‘appeared rushed and anxious’ when waving the money at the intersection, ‘nervously looking up and down the street.’” United States v. Nunn, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 78675 (N.D.Cal. June 16, 2015).*

Three officers on patrol passed defendant wearing a long heavy coat on a nice day. When defendant saw the police car, he switched his cell phone to his other hand, and his free hand patted his hip, which the officers took as a “weapons check” and he “bladed” his body to hide the gun bulge, but the officers had already seen it. They stopped and talked to him on the street and asked whether he had a license for the gun. He said no, and that was reasonable suspicion for a patdown. United States v. Williams, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 79303 (E.D.Mich. June 18, 2015).*