Opinion ID: 1437585
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Permissible Scope of the Terry Stop; Seizure of the Car Keys from Smith

Text: Appellants argue next that, even if the police had reasonable suspicion to stop and frisk them, the detention exceeded the permissible scope of a lawful Terry stop. They say that the police should have told them they were free to leave when the initial frisks revealed no evidence of criminal activity. Smith further contends that the police unlawfully seized the keys to the Dodge Aspen from his pocket since that seizure exceeded the scope of a lawful Terry frisk. Once police make a lawful Terry stop, they may reasonably detain the suspect while conducting further investigation. See Turner, 623 A.2d at 1173-74. We held in Turner that, even after the police had learned the stopped individual was not the reported suspect, the Fourth Amendment allowed police to detain that individual for a few additional minutes in order to clarify that individual's possible involvement in the reported criminal activity. Id. Pursuant to a lawful Terry stop, moreover, police also may transport an individual to a nearby crime scene for a show-up identification. See United States v. (Gerald) Lewis, 486 A.2d 729, 734 (D.C.1985) (the officer was justified in detaining appellee and returning him to the scene of the crime for a show-up on basis of reasonable suspicion alone); District of Columbia v. M.M., 407 A.2d 698, 701 (D.C.1979) (reasonable suspicion that appellees were involved in recent robbery justified brief police transport to crime scene one mile away for possible identification by a known eyewitness). Here, after the frisks yielded no weapons or contraband, appellants were detained for a few minutes while police investigated the Dodge Aspen and, as elaborated below, promptly established probable cause to arrest them both. See Franklin v. United States, 382 A.2d 20, 23 (D.C.1978) (upholding detention of fifteen minutes as reasonable under Terry ). The trial court, therefore, did not err in upholding the brief extension of the valid Terry stop and frisk that occurred here. We turn to Smith's contention that the police unlawfully seized the keys to Speight's Dodge Aspen from Smith's pocket during the Terry stop. The purpose of a Terry frisk is to ensure the safety of police officers by allowing a limited patdown of a stopped suspect to check for weapons. See Minnesota v. Dickerson, 508 U.S. 366, 113 S.Ct. 2130, 2138-39, 124 L.Ed.2d 334 (1993). Police who discover weapons or items readily identified as contraband during the lawful patdown of a suspect may seize such items under the plain feel exception to the warrant requirement. See id. at 376-77, 113 S.Ct. at 2137-38. Officer Witkowski, however, had no reason to believe the keys he felt in Smith's pocket were contraband or a weapon. Indeed, Witkowski was reasonably certain that what he had felt during the frisk was merely a set of keys. Reaching into Smith's pocket to seize the keys, therefore, exceeded the proper scope of the Terry frisk and constituted an unlawful seizure; thus, the keys could not contribute to a finding of probable cause to search the Dodge Aspen.