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E.D.Pa.: Anonymous tip on the street was RS when corroborated

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Anonymous tip from a person on the street, in an area well known for gun violence, reporting to police officers that there was a man with a gun was sufficient to give reasonable suspicion when critical facts panned out. United States v. Stallings, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15851 (E.D. Pa. February 22, 2010): Although no two search and seizure cases present precisely the same facts, Valentine nonetheless controls here with respect to the reliability of the tip given to Officers Rosado and Marcellino. In a neighborhood known for gun violence, a woman stopped the Officers to report that a man in a distinctive car a block away had a gun. The Officers were able to assess the woman's credibility as she spoke to them, and their immediate response indicates that they found her credible...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on February 27, 2010 (boomark / email).