E.D.Pa.: Use of flashlight on backseat of car at night not a search

Stopping defendant, the officer walked up and shined his flashlight on the backseat of the car seeing two guns. That was not an unreasonable search, and on the totality there was otherwise reasonable suspicion. United States v. Spruell, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 69789 (E.D. Pa. Apr. 12, 2021).*

“[T]he Fourth Amendment was not implicated during Cloud’s encounter with police on April 7, because he never acquiesced (passively or otherwise) to a show of authority. Further, even assuming that Cloud acquiesced to a show of authority, there was a reasonable articulable suspicion to support the seizure in order to investigate who owned the firearm that Officer Jenkins observed.” United States v. Cloud, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 10379 (4th Cir. Apr. 12, 2021).*

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