DC: Police on the scene in less than 30 seconds after Shotspotter alert was RS here

It was reasonable for officers to conclude that reasonable suspicion existed when they arrived within 30 seconds of a Shotspotter alert. “This immediacy also limits the possibility that the culprit (or culprits) could have fled before the officers arrived. In United States v. Jones, the D.C. Circuit held that officers arriving ‘within a minute and a half of MPD’s call reporting the ShotSpotter alert’ sufficiently limited the possibility that the suspect fled. Here, the officers arrived even sooner — not a minute and a half after a crime was reported, but thirty seconds after the crime actually occurred. Of course, it was possible that the shooter(s) had fled in those thirty seconds. But Jones recognized that officers need not eliminate that possibility to justify a stop of the person(s) still on the scene. That is because reasonable suspicion requires ‘far less than certainty.’ It demands only reasonableness, and it was not unreasonable to think the shooter(s) had yet to leave, given how rapidly the officers arrived. Also pertinent is that the ‘commotion’ the officers heard when they arrived was the same ‘commotion’ they heard when the shots rang out, which suggests that the source of the clamor had yet to leave the scene. Thus, the officers had reasons to think people involved in the shooting remained there, and they had no indication anyone had left.” Funderburk v. United States, 2021 D.C. App. LEXIS 289 (Oct. 7, 2021).

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