Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/529bv.pdf
Page Number: 345

529US1

Unit: $U41

[09-26-01 09:10:16] PAGES PGT: OPIN

270

FLORIDA v. J. L.

Opinion of the Court

experience that criminal activity may be afoot and that
the persons with whom he is dealing may be armed and
presently dangerous, where in the course of investigat-
ing this behavior he identiﬁes himself as a policeman
and makes reasonable inquiries, and where nothing in
the initial stages of the encounter serves to dispel his
reasonable fear for his own or others’ safety, he is enti-
tled for the protection of himself and others in the area
to conduct a carefully limited search of the outer cloth-
ing of such persons in an attempt to discover weapons
which might be used to assault him.”

Id., at 30.

In the instant case, the ofﬁcers’ suspicion that J. L. was
carrying a weapon arose not from any observations of their
own but solely from a call made from an unknown location
by an unknown caller. Unlike a tip from a known informant
whose reputation can be assessed and who can be held re-
sponsible if her allegations turn out to be fabricated, see
Adams v. Williams, 407 U. S. 143, 146–147 (1972), “an anony-
mous tip alone seldom demonstrates the informant’s basis of
knowledge or veracity,” Alabama v. White, 496 U. S., at 329.
As we have recognized, however, there are situations in
which an anonymous tip, suitably corroborated, exhibits “suf-
ﬁcient indicia of reliability to provide reasonable suspicion to
Id., at 327. The question we
make the investigatory stop.”
here confront is whether the tip pointing to J. L. had those
indicia of reliability.

In White, the police received an anonymous tip asserting
that a woman was carrying cocaine and predicting that she
would leave an apartment building at a speciﬁed time, get
into a car matching a particular description, and drive to a
Ibid. Standing alone, the tip would not have
named motel.
496 U. S., at 329. Only after police ob-
justiﬁed a Terry stop.
servation showed that the informant had accurately predicted
the woman’s movements, we explained, did it become reason-
able to think the tipster had inside knowledge about the sus-
pect and therefore to credit his assertion about the cocaine.