Opinion ID: 3034465
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Legal Standard for Reasonable Suspicion

Text: The question at the core of this case is whether the police had reasonable suspicion 4 to stop and frisk Carstarphen. Although the Fourth Amendment search and seizure protections generally require a warrant based on probable cause, Terry v. Ohio established that the police can conduct a “brief, investigatory stop when the officer has a reasonable, articulable suspicion that criminal activity is afoot.” Illinois v. Wardlow, 528 U.S. 119, 123 (2000) (citing Terry, 392 U.S. 1, 30 (1968)). If the police officers did not have an objective basis for reasonable suspicion, then the District Court properly suppressed the gun retrieved from Carstarphen as a result of the stop and frisk. See United States v. Brown, 448 F.3d 239, 244 (3d Cir. 2006) (“Any evidence obtained pursuant to an investigatory stop . . . that does not meet this exception must be suppressed as fruit of the poisonous tree.” (citation and internal quotations omitted)). If, on the other hand, the officers had reasonable suspicion, then we must reverse the District Court and remand the case for further proceedings. Reasonable suspicion requires that police officers have a “particularized and objective basis for believing that the particular person is suspected of criminal activity.” United States v. Brown, 159 F.3d 147, 149 (3d Cir. 1998). We are required to evaluate the specific facts in each case under the “totality of the circumstances.” United States v. Arvizu, 534 U.S. 266, 273 (2002). We evaluate a Terry stop and frisk as “two independent actions, each requiring separate justifications. The stop must be based on a suspicion of criminal activity and the frisk[, in this case,] on a reasonable suspicion that the person is armed.” United States v. Flippin, 924 F.2d 163, 165 n.2 (9th Cir. 1991) (citation omitted) (noting, however, that if the stop is unreasonable, then the whole 5 encounter, including the frisk, is illegally tainted).