JL v. State

Citation727 So.2d 204
Decision Date17 December 1998
Docket NumberNo. 90,361.,90,361.
PartiesJ.L., a juvenile, Petitioner, v. STATE of Florida, Respondent.
CourtUnited States State Supreme Court of Florida

Bennett H. Brummer, Public Defender, and Harvey J. Sepler, Assistant Public Defender, Eleventh Judicial Circuit, Miami, Florida, for Petitioner.

Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, and Roberta G. Mandel and Mark Rosenblatt, Assistant Attorneys General, Miami, Florida, for Respondent.

PER CURIAM.

We have for review State v. J.L., 689 So.2d 1116 (Fla. 3d DCA 1997), which expressly and directly conflicts with Butts v. State, 644 So.2d 605 (Fla. 1st DCA 1994). We have jurisdiction pursuant to article V, section 3(b)(3) of the Florida Constitution. For the reasons expressed below, we decline the State's invitation to create a firearm or weapons exception1 to the limitations on searches and seizures set out in the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and the parallel provisions of the Florida Constitution.

The facts and issues in this case and Butts are similar in nature. Both cases involve an anonymous telephone tip and the issue of whether the police possessed the necessary reasonable grounds to stop and frisk a citizen based solely upon the anonymous tip.

In this case, the police received an anonymous tip stating that several young black males were standing at a specified bus stop during the daylight hours. The anonymous informant stated only that one of the individuals, the one wearing the "plaid-looking" shirt, was carrying a gun. Two police officers arrived at the specified bus stop approximately six minutes after receiving the anonymous tip and observed three black males, one of whom was wearing a plaid shirt. The three males were engaged in no suspicious or illegal conduct and no additional suspicious circumstances were observed by the officers. One of the officers immediately accosted J.L., who was wearing a plaid shirt, and ordered him to put his hands above his head. Then, without questioning or other introduction, the officer proceeded to frisk J.L. and seized a gun from J.L.'s left pocket. At the same time, the second officer, again without discussion, frisked the other two individuals. At trial, J.L.'s motion to suppress the gun was granted. On appeal, the Third District Court of Appeal reversed and held that the police had a reasonable suspicion that J.L. was carrying a concealed weapon. See J.L., 689 So.2d at 1117

. The district court reasoned that the investigatory stop and frisk was justified because the surrounding circumstances indicated to the officers that the anonymous tip was reliable. See id.

In Butts, the police received an anonymous tip describing the appearance and location of a man on a bicycle who was said to be carrying a concealed gun and possibly selling drugs. The officers responded to the tip and observed Butts, who matched the description provided by the informant, riding a bicycle in the location described by the informant. The officers stopped Butts after a brief chase and detained him. The officers observed a gun in Butts' pocket and seized it. The officers frisked Butts and seized packets of cocaine and heroin. At trial, Butts' motion to suppress the gun and drugs was denied. On appeal, the First District Court of Appeal held that the anonymous tip was not sufficiently reliable because it lacked specificity and the officers failed to independently corroborate significant aspects of the tip. See Butts v. State, 644 So.2d at 606

. Specifically, the district court found that the tip failed to provide predictions regarding Butts' future movements or activities and that the police officers only verified the innocent and nonincriminating details of the tip. See id. In addition to the First District in Butts, the Fourth District has held that verification of an anonymous tip, by itself, is insufficient to justify a stop and frisk. See Pinkney v. State, 666 So.2d 590 (Fla. 4th DCA 1996).

In this case, J.L. asserts that the police officers did not have the requisite reasonable suspicion to justify a stop and frisk and that consequently the seizure of the firearm was unconstitutional. J.L. notes that the anonymous tip included no predictive qualities and that the officers only verified the innocent details of the tip.

We begin our analysis by noting that one of the cornerstones of this nation's foundation is the constitutional protection that individuals have a right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. See U.S. Const. amend. IV. The decision of the district court in J.L. seriously infringes upon this defining right.

The law is well established that a police officer may, in appropriate circumstances, stop a person for the purpose of investigating possible criminal behavior, even though there is no probable cause for an arrest, as long as the officer has reasonable suspicion that the person is engaged in criminal activity. See Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 19-23, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968)

. The circumstances may even require a frisk of the person to determine whether the person is carrying a weapon, if the police officer has a reasonable suspicion that the person is armed and poses a threat to the officer or others. See id. at 27, 88 S.Ct. 1868. However, when the police act on the information of an informant, the reliability of that information must be established before a citizen can be stopped and frisked.

Anonymous tips are generally less reliable than tips provided by known informants who have previously provided information to the police in the past, see Adams v. Williams, 407 U.S. 143, 146-47, 92 S.Ct. 1921, 32 L.Ed.2d 612 (1972),

or face-to-face informants, see United States v. Salazar, 945 F.2d 47, 50-51 (2d Cir.1991). Tips from known reliable informants, such as an identifiable citizen who observes criminal conduct and reports it, along with his own identity to the police, will almost invariably be found sufficient to justify police action. In contrast, anonymous tips must be closely scrutinized. "[A]n anonymous tip alone seldom demonstrates the informant's basis of knowledge or veracity inasmuch as ordinary citizens generally do not provide extensive recitations of the basis of their everyday observations and given that the veracity of persons supplying anonymous tips is `by hypothesis largely unknown, and unknowable.'" Alabama v. White, 496 U.S. 325, 329, 110 S.Ct. 2412, 110 L.Ed.2d 301 (1990) (quoting Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 237, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983)).

However, an anonymous tip can provide the basis for reasonable suspicion, provided that it can be established that the tip is reliable. See White, 496 U.S. at 332,

110 S.Ct. 2412. A tip's reliability can be established in a number of different ways. A tip may describe suspicious details concerning conduct that is presently occurring or is about to occur in the future (i.e., a call received after midnight, on a warm summer evening, stating, "A person is carrying a gun; that person is wearing a ski mask and a long trench coat and is approaching a convenience store."). Verification by the police of the suspicious details clearly provides the police with the requisite reasonable suspicion to make a Terry stop.

The more difficult case involves those tips which allege criminal conduct, but only describe "innocent details of identification," for which the details in and of themselves are in no way incriminating or indicative of criminal behavior. Butts, 644 So.2d at 606 (quoting Robinson v. State, 556 So.2d 450, 452 (Fla. 1st DCA 1990)). Innocent detail tips merely provide the police with verifiable details which are completely innocent in nature (i.e., a tip similar to the one in this case, which only describes innocuous clothing, location, etc.). Nevertheless, innocent detail tips can still prove to be reliable and be the foundation for reasonable suspicion. See United States v. Walker, 7 F.3d 26, 31 (2d Cir.1993)

. For instance, a tip can predict particular actions which will occur in the future. Future predictions can establish that the tip is reliable if the tip "contain[s] a range of details relating not just to easily obtained facts and conditions existing at the time of the tip, but to future actions of third parties ordinarily not easily predicted." White, 496 U.S. at 332,

110 S.Ct. 2412 (quoting Gates

462 U.S. at 245,

103 S.Ct. 2317). "[I]ndependent corroboration by the police of significant aspects of the informer's predictions [can] impart[] some degree of reliability to the other allegations made by the caller." Id. If the actions do occur as the informant predicted, and the actions involve matters to which a normal person would not be privy, this demonstrates that the informant has a "special familiarity with the [suspect's] affairs," beyond the knowledge that a normal person would possess. Id.

Reasonable suspicion can be established by verification of a presently-occurring innocent detail tip coupled with an independent police investigation. See generally United States v. Bold, 19 F.3d 99, 103 (2d Cir.1994)

. But for these types of tips (presently-occurring innocent detail tips), the independent police investigation would have to uncover something more than just a verification of the innocent details. The police must observe additional suspicious circumstances as a result of the independent investigation. See White, 496 U.S. at 329,

110 S.Ct. 2412 ("Some tips, completely lacking in indicia of reliability, would either warrant no police response or require further investigation before a forcible stop of the suspect would be authorized."). Judge Allen's opinion in Butts provides the correct framework for analysis:

An anonymous tip can provide the basis for an investigatory stop when the tip, as corroborated by independent police work, exhibits sufficient indicia of reliability to furnish police with a reasonable suspicion that the defendant is engaged in criminal activity.
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