{"id":1629,"date":"2008-07-22T06:41:36","date_gmt":"2007-12-24T08:17:45","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2007-12-24T08:17:45","slug":"en-US","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=1629","title":{"rendered":"Car theft justifies a frisk when stopped"},"content":{"rendered":"

Car theft is an offense that carries with it enough risk of use of weapons to justify a frisk. Independently, there were facts justifying a frisk on reasonable suspicion. United States v. Bullock<\/a>, 379 U.S. App. D.C. 114, 510 F.3d 342 (2007):<\/p>\n

In this case, once Bullock could not produce the registration information and could not identify the owner of the car, Officer Jackson possessed reasonable suspicion that Bullock had stolen the car. Like burglary, car theft is a crime that often involves the use of weapons and other instruments of assault that could jeopardize police officer safety, and thus justifies a protective frisk under Terry to ensure officer safety. As the Eighth Circuit has held, “when officers encounter suspected car thieves, they also may reasonably suspect that such individuals might possess weapons.” United States v. Hanlon<\/em>, 401 F.3d 926, 929 (8th Cir. 2005) (internal quotation marks omitted); see also United States v. Williams<\/em>, 7 F. App’x 876, 885 (10th Cir. 2001) (permissible to frisk driver prior to consensual search of potentially stolen van); United States v. Bradley<\/em>, 1990 WL 124205, at *2 (6th Cir. 1990) (officers were “justified in frisking both the driver and passenger of the car that they believed to have been recently stolen” because it was reasonable to believe that a person “suspected of having recently been involved in a car theft[] might have been armed and dangerous”).<\/p>\n

. . .<\/p>\n

Statistics show that traffic stops continue to be extraordinarily dangerous to the police officers who risk their lives to protect the public. Every year in traffic stops and pursuits in the United States, about 6,000 police officers are assaulted-and about 10 officers are killed. U.S. DEP’T OF JUSTICE, FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION, UNIFORM CRIME REPORTS: LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS KILLED AND ASSAULTED (2006), at http:\/\/www.fbi.gov\/ucr\/killed\/2006\/index.html<\/a>. By ordering Bullock out of the car and frisking him for purposes of officer safety, Officer Jackson did not take “any unreasonable steps in attempting to ensure that he would not become one of these statistics.” Holmes<\/em>, 385 F.3d at 791.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Qualified immunity was improperly granted to an officer for a three hour detention of a Haitian-American who was driving a cargo van with ten cardboard barrels inside on the Taconic State Parkway in Westchester County. The officer suspected an IED, but neither a bombsniffing or a drug dog alerted. The officer had her unhandcuffed and required her to come to the stationhouse to clear it up. After a few telephone calls, the plaintiff’s story checked out that she was merely driving the barrels to a shipping company that contained things the Haitian community in Westchester County was shipping home, and she was released. Gilles v. Repicky<\/a>, 511 F.3d 239 (2d Cir. 2007).*<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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