{"id":7894,"date":"2012-10-29T14:19:36","date_gmt":"2012-10-29T06:31:04","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-10-29T06:31:04","slug":"en-US","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=7894","title":{"rendered":"OH2: Stop with RS of drugs in high crime area justifies patdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

Defendant was stopped in a high crime area with at least reasonable suspicion. The fact there were drugs involved and the stop was a high crime area justified a patdown. The officer also articulated a fear [not facts] that defendant could have procured a weapon from the other person in the car. State v. Bales<\/a>, 2012 Ohio 4968, 2012 Ohio App. LEXIS 4349 (2d Dist. October 26, 2012): <\/p>\n

[*P23] Additionally, it is well recognized that the need for a protective pat down becomes more urgent where drugs are involved. “The very nexus between drugs and guns can create a reasonable suspicion of danger to the officer.” State v. Thompson, 1st Dist. Hamilton No. C-050400, 2006 Ohio 4285, \u00b611. Further, “[r]ecognizing the prevalence of weapons in places where illegal drugs are sold and used * * * an officer’s fear of violence when investigating drug activity is a legitimate concern that will justify a pat-down search for weapons.” State v. Oatis, 12th Dist. Butler No. CA2005-03-074, 2005 Ohio 6038, \u00b6 23, citing State v. Taylor, 82 Ohio App.3d 434, 612 N.E.2d 728 (2d Dist.1992).<\/p>\n

[*P24] We find that, based on the totality of the circumstances, Officer Benge articulated a reasonable basis to believe that appellant may be armed and dangerous. The area in which the officers stopped appellant was known for its high rate of crime and specifically its high rate of drug crimes. Officer Benge testified that, based on her knowledge and experience as an officer, “weapons are synonymous with drugs. They go hand and hand.” Moreover, Officer Benge testified that she was concerned appellant may have obtained a weapon from the female passenger while they were in the back of the cruiser unhandcuffed. These factors, taken together and viewed objectively through the eyes of the officer on the scene, warrant a reasonable belief that appellant could be armed. Thus, the totality of the circumstances supports the trial court’s finding that Officer Benge’s pat down of appellant was proper.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Note: This is virtually a per se rule the way this is written.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

b2evALnk.b2WPAutP Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"pingsdone","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7894","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\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7894\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}