Court Opinion

ID: 9747357
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 15:12:27.502681+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:23.134214
License: Public Domain

ZAPPALA, Justice,
dissenting.
The broad sweep of the Majority’s Opinion causes me to wonder whether the concepts of “probable cause” and “reasonable suspicion” retain any vitality in this Commonwealth, or whether, as it appears, law enforcement officers may now under the guise of protecting themselves and society stop any person who in the officers’ judgment appears out of place.
My disagreement with the Majority lies in the application of the governing legal precept to the facts at hand; with the summary of facts, choice of applicable law, and interpretation of that law I have no quarrel. It is well-established that under the Constitutions of the United States and of this Commonwealth, in certain circumstances police may detain a person and conduct a limited precautionary search even in the absence of probable cause. Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968); Commonwealth v. Hicks, 434 Pa. 153, 253 A.2d 276 (1969). I find it ironic, however, that the Majority would cite Hicks, because in that case we suppressed the evidence, holding that the record was devoid of the necessary proof to establish the “reasonable suspicion” necessary to legitimate the stop and *540frisk. We stated that “[t]he police must prove that specific conduct of the seized person, observed by them, justified and made reasonable their belief that criminal activity was afoot and that the seized person was armed and dangerous." 434 Pa. at 160, 253 A.2d at 280 (emphasis added).
Even if the judicial imagination be stretched to allow the concession that the reasons given by the police officer here — the time of night, the weather, the empty streets, the barking dogs, the inability of appellant to produce identification-justified a suspicion that a burglary had occurred or was going j;o occur, there is absolutely no evidence upon which the officer can be said to have proven the reasonableness of his belief that the person was armed and dangerous. Images of peril conjured from detective novels and adventure films, though they might supply the element of suspicion, cannot suffice to supply the element of reasonableness. The Majority is satisfied to simply state that the officer “felt the need to protect himself” and, without objective analysis of whether the reasons given justified this subjective feeling, accedes in the conclusion that the officer’s actions were proper ipse dixit. I cannot go along. In the pursuit of “law and order” we must not choose order at the expense of law.
I would reverse the Order of the Superior Court.