Opinion ID: 1910407
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Validity of the Stop and Frisk

Text: In this case the caller identified himself by last name, address, and telephone number, thereby removing the case from the Florida v. J.L . line of cases involving unidentified informants. [9] The trial court concluded that, with this information on the record, the caller could be held accountable for a false report  as both the Supreme Court and this court have previously recognized. See Gates, 462 U.S. at 233-234, 103 S.Ct. 2317; Brown, 590 A.2d at 1016. In addition, the reliability of the caller's information was enhanced by the exchange between the dispatcher and the caller. From the telephone call, the court could infer that the citizen was continuously viewing the scene while making the call because he was able to provide additional information when the dispatcher asked a direct question about who else was on the scene at that very moment. The citizen also reported the location of the gun on appellant's body (in his waistband) and described his clothing and footwear. The officer responded to 646 Newton Place within a minute after receiving the dispatcher's call and was able to confirm the details provided by the 911 caller. Under the totality of the circumstances, this tip was properly deemed reliable and easily afforded Officer Hackley the necessary justification to conduct an investigatory stop and frisk. We have found tips from citizens sufficiently reliable to justify Terry stops even when the caller provides incomplete identifying information. In Groves a 911 dispatcher received a telephone call from a man who identified himself by name but gave no address or telephone number. He told the dispatcher that a man currently in a car at a particular intersection had a gun and described the color and make of the car. The dispatcher relayed an abbreviated version of the tip to officers near that location. The officers found a car of that color at the named intersection and noted that, although the make of the car was not an exact match to the tip, it was substantially similar. We held that these facts were enough to establish a reasonable suspicion and sustained the ensuing Terry stop. Groves, 504 A.2d at 605. Like Groves, the present case involves an identified citizen informant who made a telephone call to a 911 dispatcher. The identified informant in the instant case, moreover, provided not only his name but also his address and telephone number, thereby enhancing his reliability. The dispatcher then relayed an abbreviated version of the tip to a nearby police officer. That officer was able almost immediately to corroborate the tip, as in Groves, and thus conducted a frisk, found the gun in appellant's waistband, and placed him under arrest. In Groves we held that there was an articulable suspicion based solely on the statements of an informant who gave his full name, stated that a man with a gun was at a certain intersection, gave a description of the car the man was driving, and pinpointed the car's exact location at the moment of the call. Groves, 504 A.2d at 604. These facts are almost identical to the facts in the case at bar, except that Groves was in a car at a particular intersection, whereas appellant was not in a car but standing on the sidewalk in front of a building at 646 Newton Place. Reviewing the facts in the light most favorable to sustaining the trial court's ruling, as we must, see Peay, 597 A.2d at 1320, we hold that the identified informant's telephone tip and the officer's immediate corroboration of appellant's location and clothing were sufficient to establish a reasonable articulable suspicion, which in turn sufficed to justify a Terry stop and frisk. Abundant case law, including not only Groves but also Allen, Gomez, Parker, and even Adams v. Williams, supports this holding. [10]