Court Opinion

ID: 9697551
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 19:20:55.675814+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:33.594806
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion by
Jacobs, J.:
I respectfully dissent.
I continue to adhere to the premise that effective law enforcement requires that police be permitted to make brief investigatory stops based upon less than probable cause; and that our respect for the rights of individuals will not be tarnished by permitting such action. In this case police officers were in possession of information which clearly did not amount to probable cause sufficient to justify an arrest. The information was, however, sufficiently detailed to give rise to a suspicion on the part of the officers that criminal activity might be occurring or impending. Harboring such suspicions, the police officers *92were justified in approaching the vehicle to investigate. See Commonwealth v. Brown, 228 Pa. Superior Ct. 158, 328 A.2d 104 (1974); Commonwealth v. Smith, 225 Pa. Superior Ct. 509, 311 A.2d 716 (1973). When the occupant of the vehicle made a furtive gesture inconsistent with the officer’s request, I believe the officer acted reasonably in extricating the appellant from the vehicle. Cf. Adams v. Williams, 407 U.S. 143 (1972).
The law of search and seizure requires a balancing of the interests of the individual with those of society. Our legitimate concern for individual rights should not be permitted to obscure its counterweight — the interests of society — here manifested in the safety and lives of the police officer on the street. When an officer has a reasonable suspicion that a citizen is armed (and therefore inherently dangerous) and is confronted by a furtive gesture, I believe the officer must be permitted to act reasonably to protect himself.
In my opinion the currency of individual rights is not depreciated by brief investigatory stops based upon “specific and articulable facts,” Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 21 (1968), which give rise to reasonable suspicions that criminal activity is afoot. I would hold that the initial approach of the vehicle was lawful and that the furtive gesture by the appellant coupled with the officer’s suspicions that the occupants were armed provided justification for retrieving the weapon.
Watkins, P.J., and Van der Voort, J., join in this dissenting opinion.