{"id":17048,"date":"2015-05-01T10:46:21","date_gmt":"2015-05-01T15:46:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=17048"},"modified":"2015-05-01T10:48:14","modified_gmt":"2015-05-01T15:48:14","slug":"or-furtive-gesture-alone-in-or-not-enough-but-here-there-was-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=17048","title":{"rendered":"OR: Furtive gesture alone in OR not enough, but here there was more"},"content":{"rendered":"

Defendant was smoking in a car in a subdivision being developed, so it couldn\u2019t be called a high crime area. A citizen informant called in that the case was suspicious, so an officer was dispatched to see. When defendant saw the police car, he was startled, and he then made a furtive gesture. While furtive gestures alone are not enough in Oregon, here there was more, and the stop was based on reasonable suspicion that there might be a gun. State v. Clink<\/a>, 270 Or. App. 646 (April 29, 2015):
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Defendant\u2019s movements, after he spotted Wolf, contribute to our conclusion that, under the totality of the circumstances, Wolf reasonably suspected that defendant had been engaged in criminal activity. Although \u201cfurtive gestures\u201d alone may not give rise to reasonable suspicion, they can contribute to the reasonableness of an officer\u2019s belief that a person has committed a crime or presents a safety threat. See State v. Rudnitskyy, 266 Or App 560, 565, 338 P3d 742 (2014), rev den, 357 Or 112 (2015) (a police officer had reasonable suspicion justifying his stop of the defendant because of the \u201cdefendant\u2019s furtive gesture with [a] straw,\u201d combined with other factors including the officer\u2019s \u201cknowledge that plastic straws are commonly used to smoke heroin\u201d). Here, Wolf explained that defendant\u2019s \u201celaborate,\u201d \u201cdeliberate,\u201d and \u201cfurtive\u201d movements suggested that \u201che was concealing a large hard object.\u201d What Wolf perceived as an attempt to conceal or retrieve a weapon could contribute either to a reasonable suspicion that defendant presented a safety threat or\u2014given Wolf\u2019s belief that \u201cpeople who use drugs are often associated with firearms\u201d\u2014to a heightened suspicion that defendant was engaged in illegal drug activity. See State v. Mitchele, 240 Or App 86, 94, 251 P3d 760 (2010) (defendant\u2019s furtive attempt to hide from approaching police officers \u201cadd[ed] support to the conclusion that the officers\u2019 suspicion that defendant was engaging in or about to engage in criminal activity\u201d). Finally, Wolf\u2019s testimony that citizen reports of criminal activity \u201cthat come from this particular neighborhood *** have more merit than [those from] other areas of [the] city\u201d may not be weighty evidence, but it contributes at least slightly to the totality of the circumstances that demonstrate the reasonableness of his suspicion that defendant had been committing a crime. See generally State v. Killion, 229 Or App 347, 356, 211 P3d 367, rev den, 347 Or 349 (2009) (ultimately, \u201cwhether the [informant\u2019s] report is reliable rests on the particular circumstances in each case, because informant tips vary greatly in their value and reliability\u201d (internal quotation marks omitted)). <\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Defendant was smoking in a car in a subdivision being developed, so it couldn\u2019t be called a high crime area. A citizen informant called in that the case was suspicious, so an officer was dispatched to see. When defendant saw … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reasonable-suspicion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17048"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17049,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17048\/revisions\/17049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}