When Can the Police Stop and Frisk You on the Street?

this article about stop and frisk has been very beneficial to ensure proper use since i am in criminal justice program.....

Again our country shows it's racist and disrespectfully hand! NYPD stop and frisk policy turns out to be stop and frisk and disrespect black people! WHO IS NOT SURPRISE? Only 2% of the stop resulted in something illegal. But that does not stop the NYPD these are black people . America's Bo--ie Man" ! The constitution for people of color does not apply! None of the Supreme Court Justice that see reports on TV and news paper say anything about the abuse! There is no white leadership or law enforcement leadership stepping in and saying this is unconstitutional! White serial child molester and abuser are respected by law enforcement more so then black innocent citizen! After Columbine High School massacre occurred where two white teens murder 14 white people 1 black. There was no stop and frisk of white Americans! John Wayne Casey white murder 33 white young men afterwards their was no stop and frisk of white men policy! Given the history of white hatred and police brutality against black citizen! Only a idiot would allow law enforcement to stop and frisk just black people! Knowing their will be that one black stupid person that is going to be fed up and run! Innocent or not and the answer will be death for running! I thought he had a gun" I was in fear of my life" so we shot 41 to 50 bullets at a unarmed citizen SO -SAD TO -BAD should not have run! Where is the ACLU! Where is the President! Mayor Nutter ran of stop and frisk IDIOT! Just like pass Mayor Wilson Goode who burn down a black neighborhood and murder 11 unarmed blacks! Just because of one man had a warrant! Or the racist stupid sick lowlife Frank" Rizzo who murder unborn beat American citizen! This is a sad and tragic testament to the diminished moral fiber of American society. I am disgusted by this senseless stop and frisk of innocent Americans! Depriving blacks of the love and comfort of growing up without respect. I am deeply saddened. Today black men and women are fighting and dying in two wars for the freedom and right of these racist disrespectful cops SHAME ON US ALL!

i think that cops is trying to their job and stop these crime and murder and kidnapping its very bad person to this break any law under around the world and i think this world need a real superheros stop bad people to superheros are like cops and this is not right at all my name is carn kelly i lived in new zealand thanks

I feel fearful for myself and my children, especially my sons.
This action will account for so many unnecessary murders and attacks on innocent people. The people are going to be uptight and defensive. It is disrespectful. Just plain disrespectful. I cannot imagine coming out of a supermarket and being approached by police, submit to them touching my body, making records of it and just letting me go? This is just sick. I can't even write anymore this is just sick.

Very nice site!

TSA and Stop and Frisk? Does anyone else find it interesting that TSA has fewer legal requirements (Reasonable Suspicion according to the law) than police to frisk a person boarding an aircraft where there is no indication an illegal act is occurring? At the airport yesterday, there were quite a few folks undergoing "pat downs" or frisks without what I would consider any legal justification. I guess TSA is not subject to the same legal constraints and people getting on aircraft automatically give up their rights against unreasonable search and seizure. Could be an interesting legal discussion....

I believe I have a good case against a local PD and am looking for an attorney to handle my case. I was stopped on a bogus stop, frisked for no reason (I don't have any weapons or drugs charges), and given an $88 ticket for a charge the officer can't prove. I also have the whole thing on audio.

I don't care if theirs a 95% conviction rate on stop and risks. There is no room or right to violate my constitutional right of the 4th amendment. Like what Benjamin Franklin once said "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety", and Tyrone whets all this non sense about white leadership or the police stepping up. Hey I got an idea why don't YOU step up and do something. Yeah that’s right its your freedom their taking away not the police or the government’s. Problem is no one wants to take responsibility for their freedom any more all they want to do is wine and complain but not lift a finger because "oh isn't that the governments responsibility or the police". We the people are the sovereign of this nation never forget that and we need to

Seriously? I have never commented on one of these boards before, but I am so aggravated that I feel compelled to. Get real. Police officers have much more to deal with than harassing citizens for no apparent reason. If they stop and frisk you, there is a REASON for it. They are not just going to walk around and start randomly molesting people.

Jennifer you are wrong and from your comments, it is obvious that you have never been stopped and frisked. Within the last month I have been stopped twice by the NYPD. Both times I felt violated and harassed. I have an expensive European car and apparently I should not be able to own this vehicle. First incident, I was shoveling out a snowed in spot on the street and I had been there for about 15 mins shoveling. Along comes an unmarked car with no police lights on and two officers jump out and the first words out of one of the officer's mouth was "Is this car yours"? When I responded yes and then asked the officer why he is stopping me he says, "there was a car reported stolen in the area". He never ran my plates, all he wanted was my Licence and proof of ownership. No warnings were given, no tickets just a good old fashion racial profiling. This was actually the more calm of the two incidents because on Feb 24th I was pulled over in my car and one of the four officers in this illegal stop and frisk actually told me he had no problem with just arresting me tonight. He also made it quite clear that he had no problem in possibly shooting me by the way he unclipped his gun and held his hand on it the entire time. I have no arrests, no criminal record, I don't drink or do any form of drug but for some reason I was threatening enough for this officer to unclip his gun holster and keep his hand on his gun while his three fellow officers searched my car without my consent. I felt very violated and powerless at the same time. No tickets or warnings were issued again. By the way, the reason I was told I was stopped was because my inspection sticker had started to roll under a bit on my windshield. Funny how the officer saw that from driving behind me and they were in a van and i'm in a two door coupe. I guess he had special ex-ray night vision.

you have no rights ,just Google japanes Americans 1942,see how fast they can be taken away ,get your head out of the sand people!

Obviously the ones who have a problem with law enforcement have a problem with authority or don't understand the job that they do. If they stop u, then they saw something that caught there attention that wasnt lawfully right. When they frisk u or draw there weapon then they feel threatened by ur actions and want to do everything they can to protect themselves. If u are fumbling in ur pocket then that makes the officer think that u have a weapon and u might intend on hurting them if u get the chance. Hands down law enforcement r hear to protect and serve and at the end of there shift they just want to go home alive.

"Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people."
— Thomas Jefferson

You left out the part of the law that prohibits patterns of this police practice.

Not being allowed to call a passenger witness to testify on your own behalf is a violation of the Constitutions' 6th amendment right to compel witnesses. This was done in my case,
and also led to an illegal conviction against me...

What is the reason for , if you have a particular fire arm and its registered correctly, why can the ATF come into your home 24/7 to check if it is still in your possesion.

this is unconstitutional. this is deinfitely a loop hole in our legal system. all the cop has to do is reach forward and plant/act like he pulled something off of you to frame you. this is incredibly unconstitutional. If you want to wear that badge and protect people, bless you for it, but you better dang well know the laws that protect me from you.

I have a 17 year old, i never thought he would be stopped and frisk, that is a humiliation for him, he simply can't walk from school to home without feeling he has to be stop by a police officer. All of the cops are white, and he is Latino, these cops should be ashamed. Its ironic that he will be joining the Marines once he graduates H.S.!!!

Hi i just wanted to clarify one thing of your article in the first paragraph were it states,
"In fact, under the stop and frisk exception, the police can stop you on the street and pat you down for anything illegal...as long as they have suspicion."

The officer can conduct a pat down search only for weapons for the officer's saftey due to the case of Terry v. Ohio if they have reasonable suspision to do so but not for contraband such as narcotics they would need probable cause or have made an arrest to do that. If the officer feels drug paraphinalia through a pocket that evidence can be used as probable cause to conduct a more extensive search of the suspect.

Stop and Frisk doesn't deter crime, stop and frisk is the crime. This is a racist policy. 99% of those who are stoped are blacks and latinos. and 99% of them are not arrested or given a ticket. We must bring the end to this policy "Stop and Frisk". November 19 at 1pm we would be holding a protest and a civil disobidience act to show the world that our goals is to stop stop and frisk. We are going to meet at King Park, 153rd and Jamaica Ave in Jamaica Queens at 1pm. For those who are interested are welcome to come and witness or participate in the protest.

I suggest you to add a facebook like button!

i got stopped at 9pm by the cops just for walking up the road with a backpack that looked heavy, i said whats your reaxsonable ground to search they said cuz my bag was heav. thats not right and are they aloud to even do that?

"Unfortunately, the police don't always need a warrant."

Why is that 'unfortunate'? Is that because you don't like it? If it is established precedent, then it's the law.

You show your bias, but, given that you are, unfortunately, lawyers, that is no surprise. (You see what I did there?)

""The key element in this type of stop is that the individual must submit to the show of authority,""

this article is new world order garbage... they arent authorities they are public servants dont forget it!

On Tuesday May 1st 2012 I was stopped and frisked at an ATM machine. A white buddy of mine and I went to use an ATM machine in the meat packing neighborhood of New York City. (A low crime white neighborhood) I used the ATM first got my cash and stood to the side while my buddy got his cash. As My buddy was getting his cash 2 cops showed up in an unmarked Vehicle and approached us. One cop came directly to me and asked for my ID and the other cop went up to my buddy and did the same. But the part that made me sick to my stomach was that the cop that was detaining me made me put my hands on the wall, and started to search me, asking "do you have any coke or weed on you?" They did not search my white friend. They only searched me. Then the cop said What are you doing here? I replied "I'm using the ATM" and he said "wheres the cash then?" (I'm sure he noticed the 5 100 dollar bills that were in my pocket when he illegally searched me.) but with the Sean Bell Police shooting in mind (for those of you who dont know who Sean Bell is, he was a black male shot and killed by NYPD cops google the story) I just showed him the cash and my ATM Receipt. After a few more minutes of harassment they let us go, never searching my white friend, Just searching me the black guy. I knew the cops searched me probably cause they thought I was a drug dealer waiting by the ATM for the white guy to pay me for drugs. This was probably their reasonable suspicion for the stop. But the bottom line is that it was illegal and violated my civil rights. Even my white friend told me he never understood what black people go through with NYPD until that night. I am a black man I own a multi million dollar corporation and several properties in Manhattan and in Brooklyn NY, and I have been stopped by the police for no reason several times. This is racial profiling 100%. I don't give the police a hard time if I'm stopped because they carry guns and they will make things up to arrest you. Just like they make things up to illegally search you. Many of these cops are plain Racist some are from racist neighborhoods on Staten Island and Long Island. Including the 2 that stopped my friend and I last night. If you don't think Some NYPD police officers are plain Racist, and profile Blacks for search more often then whites then you should walk a day in a blacks mans shoes to understand.

This is such bull***t, they can search you because you're odd or different, maybe because your somewhere that isn't the best? That is just wrong. '1.Appears not to fit the time or place' That is really f-ed up. 5.Number of suspects and THEIR PHYSICAL SIZE? That is just really wrong. I'm tall and don't blend in well, does that mean they should be able to stop and frisk me, because that's just bull***t. Cops get away with too much s**t now. No wonder they are so full of themselves, they can do whatever they want and get away with it because the are 'Oh so great.'

Stop and frisk and its expanded application represent the end of America the idea, and the beginning of the end of America the nation.

More than 846,000 black men were incarcerated in 2008, according to U.S. Bureau of Justice estimates reported by NewsOne. African Americans make up 13.6 percent of the U.S. population according to census data, but black men reportedly make up 40.2 percent of all prison inmates.

"Under the Terry ruling, a police officer may stop and detain a person based on reasonable suspicion." In NYC the police give a summons or arrest at a rate of only 10% of those stopped. CLEARLY, the NYC Police are NOT using reasonable standards! It would seem that unless they are much closer to 50% that those stopped and NOT cited should file civil lawsuits for violation of their 4th Amendment rights.

On Wednesday evening at 8:20 PM on May 30, 2012 I was harassed, intimidated, and insulted under color of uniform by Officer _____ and his partner.
I was waiting to make a U-turn on ________Blvd. on my bicycle. I was in the center left turn lane facing west. It was approximately 8:20 PM, but still light out. All the traffic traveling westbound was clear and I was waiting for the on-coming traffic to clear before turning. I heard a car speeding up behind me and coming very close. As the car passed the driver yelled, “Get out of the f#*king street!” Judging from the kind of language used and the revving of the engine as if to intimidate me, I did not regard the person as someone important and yelled “F#*k you!” over my shoulder only to see that I was yelling at an officer in a patrol car. Upon realizing it was a policeman, it was too late. I had provoked the wrath of the officer and the retaliation was in full swing. The police car made a dramatic high speed U-turn in the middle of _______ Blvd. crossing the full width of the street wheels squealing and smoking. I wasn’t sure what provoked such a burst of testosterone, but I knew I was its intended audience. Still standing and waiting to safely turn from the center left turn lane I did not feel it was safe to cross as a police car was speeding toward me at full speed and screeching to a stop only ten feet from where I was standing. The driver again yelled out of his open window, “Get out of the f%#king street NOW!” I said, “Okay, okay, calm down! I’m going.” As I crossed the street and put my bike on the sidewalk, I turned and saw that the driver of the police car was not relenting in his threatening approach. I was being treated as though I had been caught robbing a bank. He violently pulled the car up in a skewed angle to the curb pointing the front of the vehicle toward me in a threatening way and swung open his door and yelled, “Turn around! Get up against the wall! Put your hands behind your head!” I was amazed and thoroughly embarrassed by this command, but I did it anyway. I wasn’t sure if this officer had mistaken me for someone else, but it was clear that I was going to be arrested for something. The second officer now approached me and asked if I had any identification. I said, “Yes” and reached into the pocket of my shorts to get my license. He immediately scolded me for doing so. “Get your hands out where I can see them!” The driver now storming towards me yelled, “Keep your hands up! Spread your legs!” I was being frisked for the first time in my 47 years for doing absolutely nothing. He asked if I had any sharp objects in my pockets and I said, “No.” He reached into my pocket and removed my driver’s license and I asked him what I had done wrong. He said I was crossing the street illegally. I told him I was making a U-turn from the center lane and that it was legal to do so. He stormed back to his car to check my license yelling, “Do you have any previous convictions or parole violations?” I said, “No, and that I was a very respectful person.” Since the driver whose badge name was _____ did not seem interested in listening to my explanation of why I was in the street. I tried the second officer, a little man with a long name I couldn’t pronounce. He stared at me and asked why I was in the street. I told him I was making a U-turn, a legal U-turn from the center lane and that it was perfectly common for cyclists to do so. He said, “You were in the middle of the street.” And then he added, “You’re not the brightest tool. Are you?” I said, “Now you’re insulting me, sir. That’s not necessary.” He stared blankly at me for a few seconds and then said, “When you’re on a bike, you’re considered a pedestrian.” I politely corrected him surprised at his ignorance of the law. I said, “My bike is considered a moving vehicle, it has a drivetrain and that I was subject to all the laws that cars had to follow. I described the center lane as a legal left turn lane for which to make a U-turn. The driver yelled back that I was in the middle of the street and I admitted, “Yes, I was,” and repeated that I was there legally. Being treated with absolute disregard for my rights, I assumed I had done something wrong and that was why he was so angry. So, I also added that I was sorry if I had caused him some offense. Then the driver said I could turn around, but to keep my hands behind my back. I guessed he’d decided that I wasn’t a terrorist or gangster after checking my identification. He tried a new tactic taking his partner’s lead talking to me as though I were stupid. “So, if you weren’t crossing illegally, how’d you get to the middle of the street?” I told him that I had crossed to the center lane from the right lane just as a car would. Since there was no traffic traveling west and ample room for him to violently swing his patrol car widely to the opposite side of the street at the time. I figured he’d understand that the westbound traffic was clear enough for me to make a lane change safely before he arrived on the scene. I had simply been waiting for the on-coming traffic to clear and that’s when he saw me. I had my front and back lights flashing on my bike and my reflective gear on. So there could be no danger involved. Officer _____ stormed back up to me handing me my license saying, “Just be more careful next time.” I said I would and that I was a very respectful person. The last thing Officer _______ said to me as he got back into his police car was that he knew I had not observed who he was before returning my insult. This implies that he was, in fact, trying to intimidate a cyclist whose only offense was that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time according to Officer _______.
Please check your records and videotape for these dates and times. I was bullied unjustly by Officer _______ and his partner under color of uniform. I consider this a serious offense by the _____Police Department. and I my only wish is that respectable people be allowed to come and go without harassment or over-reaching authority in their own neighborhood. There aren’t any bike lanes on _______ Boulevard in the entire stretch between ________ St. and _______ Blvd. Cyclists are risking enough hazard without this kind of bullying. This is an obviously misuse of authority and an unjustified stop-and-frisk under force of authority.

So, any cop can stop me at any time at his own discretion or whim and I am obliged to comply? I just read the Fourth Amendment, and Stop and Frisk can't be squared with it by any stretch. I have spent my entire 60 years believing I had the right to be left alone unless and until I was intruding on someone else's rights, but I have been grossly naive. Easy to be naive about these things when you're white, I suppose.

just FYI ... "stop and frisk can help us all sleep a little more soundly - a good step in the all-American pursuit of happiness" This blatant disregard for the 4th amendment is why i do not, nor will i ever use your companies services.

I was wondering what the legal requirements were to consider someone as "armed and dangerous"? Last year, I was detained for drinking and driving. The police station I had dealt with has had it out for me for a while. They said that I attempted to "Disarm a Police Officer" by trying to take his tazer while in the back of the police station. When in reality, I didn't do it. I remember that night clearly, and they shot a taser gun at me from across the room because I had an attitude. I went to my lawyers office the next day and he said that he would do a motion of discovery to get the tapes from the back of the police station. I know that there are at least 4 cameras in the back of this police station. The police station stated, "there are no cameras in the back area". I know this is bogus because I have seen the cameras multiple times. My lawyer said the Motion would be a waste of time because he would have to notify the police station when he would come to do a walk through of the station. My lawyer said this would give them enough time to take the cameras down. After I went to court for the charge of "attempting to disarm a police officer", was thrown out because of lack of evidence through the police station. This incidence happened last march. This past Sunday, my friend got in a car accident. He hit a light pole head on while I was in the passengers seat. We're both okay, but when the cop came to the scene, he asked me for my ID. Knowing how the system works I handed him my ID, and told him he could search me if he wanted to because I figured he was going to. After the officer ran my ID, he through me against the car hood with force. He kept yelling "WHY DOES **** POLICE STATION HAVE YOU MARKED AS ARMED AND DANGEROUS?!" I stated, I have no idea besides the incident that I had went through last year. I have never been armed OR dangerous for that matter. I don't believe that I should be treated like this, humiliated, or considered as "Armed and Dangerous" because the crooked cops lied & wanted to see me squirm. My lawyer even said regardless of the reason, a taser gun should NEVER be used INDOORS because it's supposed to be used outside. This has been jogging on my mind since last sunday (the car accident occurred & I was treated like a criminal). My lawyers office isn't open until tomorrow.. Any suggestions?? :/