Terry Searches of Passengers

On September 13, 2008 I worte a blog about a case called State v Johnson. The ruling in the case from Arizona Courts was that an officer cannot pat a passenger down if the passenger is free to leave -- even if the officer can articulate reasonable suspicion to believe the passenger is armed.

The case went to the United States Supreme Court -- Arizona v Johnson.

The decided this case in such a milque toast way that the court was able to muster a 9-0 decision in favor of the state and reversing the Arizona Courts' decision.

The Court simply held that there was no way that the passenger was free to leave as the moment he got out of the vehicle the officer patted him down and found a gun in his waistband.

Since this was a detention (passengers are lawfully detained the same as drivers during a traffic stop) the pat-down was reasonable.

Best -

DA