Drug/Criminal Lawyer in Bergen (Hackensack), Passaic (Paterson) and Morris (Morristown) Counties: The Use of Anonymous Tips in Investigative Stops

Over 40 years ago, the Supreme Court in a case titled Terry v. Ohio, concluded that a police officer could stop a person to investigate the prospects of criminal behavior, even if there is no probable cause.  In that case, the court said that the police officer could also pat down a suspect to determine if the suspect was armed. The standard for both the investigative stop and the pat down was "objective reasonable suspicion.” For quite sometime now it has been determined that information given to law enforcement agents by an unknown informant could not create “objective reasonable suspicion.”

Recently, an Appellate Division panel in New Jersey, revisited that issue.  In that case, the police officer received an anonymous tip that an individual wearing a green jacket with a hood had a handgun in a specific area in Asbury Park. As a result of this information,  the police officer made an investigatory stop.  When the subject put his hand in his pocket other police officers drew their guns. After the subject refused to remove his hand from the pocket the suspect was arrested and handcuffed.  While a search of the person of the defendant did not determine a weapon a significant collection of glassine bags filled with heroin were found in the area where defendant was initially encountered. The issue before the court, among others was whether the investigatory stop was legitimate.

In addressing the issue, the court looked to a collection of decisions rendered in the federal courts, where it was determined that an anonymous tip relating to people who were believed to have weapons was sufficient to justify an investigatory stop and frisk under Terry v. Ohio.  Grounded upon these cases, the court determined that the stop and subsequent arrest of defendant was lawful. In short, the court distinguish anonymous tips involving weapons versus drugs and found that the danger associated with weapons was such that an anonymous tip would suffice.