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MA: Blue lights outside a bar not a stop of the patrons

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

While blue lights on a police car normally are a stop, blue lights outside a bar are not. There were 25 patrons in the bar and none of them would think they were detained. Commonwealth v. Werner, 2008 Mass. App. LEXIS 1112 (November 5, 2008): No reasonable person would have interpreted the flashing blue lights outside the bar as restraining every one of the approximately twenty-five patrons from leaving the bar. The blue lights did not convert the police officers' exploratory questioning of the defendant or of the others present at the scene into a stop. Defendant's truck was not based on reasonable suspicion that he was involved in a murder. Nevertheless, his consent justified the search in any event. State v. Hixon, 2008 MT 365, 2008 Mont...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on November 07, 2008 (boomark / email).