Opinion ID: 406819
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: continued detention and interrogation

Text: 15 Defendants contend the separate questioning exceeded what is permissible during a Terry stop in terms of both duration and scope of inquiry. They then argue that because the police did not have probable cause, the separate questioning was illegal. Defendants rely principally upon Dunaway v. New York, 442 U.S. 200, 99 S.Ct. 2248, 60 L.Ed.2d 824 (1979). The Court in Dunaway stated that investigative stops usually consumed less than a minute and involved 'a brief question or two.'  442 U.S. at 210-11, 99 S.Ct. at 2255 (quoting Brignoni-Ponce, 422 U.S. at 880, 95 S.Ct. at 2579). See also United States v. Chamberlin, 644 F.2d 1262, 1266 (9th Cir. 1980) (reasonable suspicion was sufficient to justify a brief stop and a few brief questions), cert. denied, 453 U.S. 914, 101 S.Ct. 3148, 69 L.Ed.2d 997 (1981). 16 However, inquiries during investigative stops need not always be limited to one or two questions, provided the questions asked are reasonably related in scope to the justification for their initiation. Brignoni-Ponce, 442 U.S. at 881, 95 S.Ct. at 2580 (quoting Terry, 392 U.S. at 29, 88 S.Ct. at 1884). Thus, police making a routine investigative stop may ask the suspects to explain suspicious circumstances. Brignoni-Ponce, 442 U.S. at 882, 95 S.Ct. at 2580; Dunaway, 442 U.S. at 212, 99 S.Ct. at 2256. Nor must investigative stops always be terminated within a couple of minutes. If the purpose underlying a Terry stop-investigating possible criminal activity-is to be served, the police must under certain circumstances be able to detain the individual for longer than the brief time period involved in Terry and Adams. 3 Michigan v. Summers, 452 U.S. 692, 700 n.12, 101 S.Ct. 2587, 2593 n.12, 69 L.Ed.2d 340 (1981). 17 We have upheld investigative stops taking longer than a minute or two and involving more than one or two questions in numerous prior cases. See, e.g., United States v. Anderson, 663 F.2d 934 (9th Cir. 1981) (police officers reasonably suspecting a chartered aircraft of transporting narcotics may stop and question the passengers regarding their relationship with the pilots and their knowledge of the presence of narcotics); United States v. Richards, 500 F.2d 1025 (9th Cir. 1974) (Terry stop lasting more than an hour did not violate the Fourth Amendment; the scope of inquiry did not go beyond the justification for the stop and the extended detention was justified by the police officers' attempts to check the suspects' unsatisfactory and evasive answers to routine questions), cert. denied, 420 U.S. 924, 95 S.Ct. 1118, 43 L.Ed.2d 393 (1975); see also United States v. Kennedy, 573 F.2d 657, 659 (9th Cir. 1978); United States v. Collom, 614 F.2d 624 (9th Cir. 1979), cert. denied, 446 U.S. 923, 100 S.Ct. 1862, 64 L.Ed.2d 278 (1980). 18 Here, the questions asked by the police officers were reasonably related in scope to the justification for the stop. Follow-up questions were made necessary by defendants' unconvincing and suspicious answers to the initial, routine questions. See United States v. Richards, 500 F.2d at 1029. Even if we accept defendants' claim that the separate questioning lasted 10-12 minutes, there is nothing in the record to suggest that the stop was for a longer period than was reasonably necessary. Thus, we cannot find that either the scope of the inquiry or the duration of the investigative stop was excessive.