Court Opinion

ID: 9453799
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 18:24:03.88741+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:33:48.339529
License: Public Domain

LEVENTHAL, Circuit Judge
(concurring) :
I concur in the result because I think that the officer had probable cause for an arrest when he saw appellant, whom he knew to be a narcotics addict, talking to other known narcotics users, in an area known to be frequented by narcotics users, and saw appellant receive money from and pass something to one of the group.
I do not think it necessary to decide the question here, but I think it proper to express some doubt on extension of the approach in Dorsey v. United States,1 an approach which I endorsed in my concurring opinion in Bailey v. United States,2 to the type of situation before us.
That approach is sound when officers want to investigate a situation where the circumstances are suspicious but they don’t know what’s going on. But care must be taken lest the band of such permissible investigations be stretched to serve as rationalization to justify what is in fact a stop for the purpose of searching for evidence of criminality. Similarly I am uncomfortable with the explanation that a policeman running after a man whom he has seen passing items in the circumstances described here is not launching a search but is merely opening the door to a voluntary dialogue.
Without purporting to say how I would decide, I think it fair to say that I at least have a problem with the question, and with whether the probable cause for the arrest after such a chase can include the material that was dropped by the appellant during the chase. As I do not feel obliged to consider the question here, and think it possible that the Supreme Court may have guidance for us before the question arises again, I concur in the result on the ground I have already stated.

. 125 U.S.App.D.C. 355, 372 F.2d 928 (1967).

. 128 U.S.App.D.C. 354, 389 F.2d 305 (1967).