Collective knowledge doctrine should include 911 operators

The collective knowledge doctrine should be extended to include 911 operators. Surveying the case law, this view seems better to the court, but the officers had reasonable suspicion in any event. People v. Ewing, 377 Ill. App. 3d 585, 880 N.E.2d 587 (4th Dist. 2007):

The Illinois courts have yet to address whether information known to a civilian 9-1-1 dispatcher may be imputed to the police officers. Several federal circuits have extended the collective-knowledge doctrine to situations involving a dispatch by a civilian 9-1-1 operator as opposed to another police officer. See United States v. Fernandez-Castillo, 324 F.3d 1114, 1118 (9th Cir. 2003); United States v. Kaplansky, 42 F.3d 320, 327 (6th Cir. 1994); United States v. Cutchin, 956 F.2d 1216, 1217-18 (D.C. Cir. 1992).

The Second Circuit, however, has disagreed, finding that whether the knowledge may be imputed depends upon whether the 9-1-1 operator had sufficient training to assess the information in terms of reasonable suspicion. See United States v. Colon, 250 F.3d 130, 138 (2d Cir. 2001) (holding that the police officer had insufficient information from which to conclude that a stop and frisk was appropriate wherein the civilian 9-1-1 operator lacked the training to assess the information in terms of reasonable suspicion and failed to convey sufficient information to the police officer); see also United States v. Wehrle, No. CR406-333, slip op. at 4 (February 14, 2007), ___ F.3d ____, ____, 2007 WL 521882 (S.D. Ga. 2007) (holding that information known to the civilian 9-1-1 dispatcher could be imputed to the police officer where the dispatcher had specialized law-enforcement training).

We conclude that the cases that hold the imputed-knowledge doctrine includes information contained in calls to 9-1-1 operators are more persuasive than those holding to the contrary. However, even if we were not so persuaded, we would still conclude that the information communicated to the police officers provided them with sufficient information to form reasonable suspicion. …

Officer candidly did not know what was in defendant’s pocket; he knew it was not a weapon, and he had a hunch it was a crack pipe. That was not plain feel. State v. Daugherty, 2007 Ohio 6822, 2007 Ohio App. LEXIS 5961 (8th Dist. December 20, 2007):

[*P19] In the present case, because Detective Vanverty did not immediately identify the object as contraband, we therefore conclude that his seizure of the contraband went beyond the limits of Terry as propounded in Dickerson, supra, and Evans, supra.

[*P20] Detective Vanverth clearly stated in his testimony at the suppression hearing that the object he felt in Daugherty’s pocket was “small *** probably the size of a pen, or maybe a pencil.” The trial court later confirmed from the parties that the object was approximately two inches long with the diameter of a pen or a pencil. While the detective stated that he had a hunch that the object was a crack cocaine pipe, he testified numerous times that he was not sure what the object was. The limits of Evans, supra, and Dickerson, supra were clearly exceeded by Detective Vanverth’s search and seizure.