Opinion ID: 2109125
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Validity of the Frisk

Text: Respondent argues that the trial court and the Court of Special Appeals erred in holding that, pursuant to a Terry frisk, the police could search beneath his tucked-in shirt. He contends that this was unreasonable because the officer conducting the search was not certain that the object beneath his shirt was a weapon. In arguing that the police could not search underneath his shirt, respondent relies on the following facts. The frisk began when Cpl. Segalman rolled respondent over onto his back and touched the area around respondent's waistband. Cpl. Segalman testified that, after touching the area for a second or two, he believed it was more likely that respondent was carrying a gun than drugs or the proceeds of a burglary. Cpl. Segalman said it was a solid object, there was no softness to it, or anything, it was just very hard. Respondent contends that Cpl. Segalman could not lift his shirt because the officer was not certain whether he was carrying a gun. Terry does not require a police officer to be certain that a suspect is armed in order to conduct a frisk for weapons. All that is required is a reasonable suspicion that the person is armed and dangerous. See New Jersey v. T.L.O., 469 U.S. 325, 346, 105 S.Ct. 733, 738, 83 L.Ed.2d 720 (1985) (noting that the requirement of reasonable suspicion is not a requirement of absolute certainty: `sufficient probability, not certainty, is the touchstone of reasonableness under the Fourth Amendment ....'); see generally 4 WAYNE R. LAFAVE, SEARCH AND SEIZURE, § 9.5(a), at 252 (1996) ([A] protective search is permissible when there is reason to believe that the suspect may be armed and dangerous.) Respondent relies on State v. Smith, 345 Md. 460, 693 A.2d 749, where we held that an officer could not lift a suspect's shirt to conduct a second pat-down after an initial frisk failed to detect any weapon-like object. We concluded that, following the pat-down, the officer had no legal basis to lift the suspect's shirt and conduct a second limited search. Id. at 470-71, 693 A.2d at 754. Smith is distinguishable. Smith, and the cases relied on therein, all involved an initial pat-down that revealed nothing that might have been used as a weapon against the police officer. Here, based on Cpl. Segalman's observations, there was a substantial possibility that respondent was armed and dangerous. After frisking respondent and feeling a hard object that may have been a handgun, Cpl. Segalman had even more reason to believe respondent was carrying a gun. Given that Cpl. Segalman felt what he believed might have been a gun, a belief consistent with what he had seen earlier, Cpl. Segalman was not precluded from lifting respondent's shirt.