Page 35 - TPA Journal January February 2022

light most favorable to the Government as the the first place.
prevailing party. The district court’s ruling should
be upheld if there is any reasonable view of the Our assessment of reasonable suspicion is based on
evidence to support it. the totality of the circumstances. Reasonable
suspicion can vest through the collective
The Fourth Amendment provides: “The right of the knowledge of the officers involved in the search-
people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and-seizure operation. The collective knowledge
and effects, against unreasonable searches and theory for reasonable suspicion applies so long as
seizures, shall not be violated ....” U.S. Const. there is “some degree of communication” between
amend. IV. That text says nothing about the acting officer and the officer who has
suppression. It is well-established that warrantless knowledge of the necessary facts. The record
searches violate the Fourth Amendment unless they supports that is what happened in this case.
fall within a specific exception to the warrant
requirement. The facts leading up to Bass’s arrest are
straightforward. An off-duty officer called in a tip
The Fourth Amendment contemplates searches and about suspicious activity to the unit assigned to a
seizures based “upon probable cause.” U.S. highcrime area known for drug dealing, and the
CONST. amend. IV. Probable cause requires “a fair officer explained that a man was
probability” that a suspect has committed a crime. standing next to his vehicle and appeared to be
This court has recognized that, under Terry, officers selling items from the trunk. Reasonable suspicion
may briefly detain an individual on the street for can be formed by a tip so long as the information is
questioning, without probable cause, when they marked by “indicia of reliability.” Further, tips
possess reasonable, articulable suspicion of specific to an area well-known for illegal activity
criminal activity. Reasonable suspicion is can give law the reasonable suspicion they need to
considerably easier for the government to establish detain a defendant.
than probable cause.
Officer Boudet approached Bass who, by Bass’s
Bass argues that he was detained without own admission, was selling CDs in an area known
reasonable suspicion and that “[t]here are no to law enforcement as a high-crime zone. As noted
specific articulable facts from Officer Langlois that above, when Officer Boudet asked Bass whether
support his alleged suspicion that something illegal there was anything illegal in the vehicle, Bass
was going on nor that something was being sold as answered, “Just the CDs.” Bass was driving
he saw no transaction.” without a license and disclosed he was on parole.
Officer Boudet had previously received another
When analyzing the legality of an investigative complaint from a business in the area that a man
stop, this court makes a two-part inquiry. First, we matching Bass’s description was selling CDs and
consider whether the officer’s decision to make the DVDs out of a vehicle that matched the specific
stop was justified at its inception. Second, we description of Bass’s car. Bass’s behavior and
determine whether or not the officer’s subsequent response to Boudet’s questions supported the
actions were reasonably related in scope to the officer’s suspicion consistent with previous arrests
circumstances that caused him to stop the vehicle in he had made for illegal transactions. In determining

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