Page 30 - Texas Police Journal November- December 2013

Allege Bracys status as a drug-dealer and his conceal- cause. We agree that the police had probable cause to
ment of this fact from Officer Gerber render his tip cate- believe the vehicle contained crack cocaine, providing a
gorically unreliable. Bracys personal credibility and reli- sufficient constitutional basis for searching the interior of
ability is certainly questionable. Officer Gerber s trial tes- the vehicle, relocating the vehicle, and removing a piece
timony established that Bracy had lied about his current of the dashboard.U.S. v. Powell, No. 11-51205, Fifth
involvement with drugs and drug crime. Bracys role in Circuit, Oct. 3rd, 2013.
the sale of the crack cocaine to Akin and Powell is a clear
mark against his credibility. However, we are mindful of
the governments observation at oral argument that infor-
mants in criminal investigations are rarely removed from The suspect North was convicted of possession of
all aspects of the underlying criminality. While Bracys cocaine. The District Court had denied his motion to
involvement in selling drugs and his concealment of this suppress evidence from a wiretap and the Court of
fact from Officer Gerber certainly cut against his personal Appeals REVERSED.
credibility and reliability, this is not the end of our analy-
sis. In assessing reasonable suspicion, we must account During a drug investigation involving wiretaps of sus-
for the totality of the circumstances. pects located in Mississippi, one of the suspects received
First, the information contained in Bracys tip was very a phone call from Billy, during which the two agreed to
specific. It was based on his first-hand knowledge of meet at a Jackson home used by Primer. Agents followed
events that had just taken place. He further provided a Primer to the residence, where they observed a Ford
very specific description of the vehicle in which they trav- Explorer with a Texas license plate parked in the drive-
eled. Additionally, officers in the field were readily able to way. The Ford Explorer was a rental car that was later
verify this information. When Officer Welch stopped the determined to have been rented by Richard North.
car he discovered Booker Powell, also known as Little Based on surveillance and information gathered from
Book,and April Marie Akin, a femalejust as Bracys tip intercepted phone calls between Primer and Billy, the
predicted. Finally, Bracys tip was exceedingly fresh. government applied for a warrant authorizing interception
of phone calls to and from the phone used by Billy
The specificity, predictive value, and recency of (Target Telephone 4). The government stated that it had
Bracys tip are sufficiently strong to balance the flaws in probable cause to believe the targeted phone was in the
Bracys personal credibility and reliability. A total evalu- possession of and [was] being used by [BILLY], and fur-
ation of these factors shows that the informant tip was ther declared that Billy had been identified as a member
supported by sufficient indicia of reliability to satisfy of a narcotics trafficking organization. The application for
the reasonable suspicion requirements under Terry. the warrant was supported by an affidavit from DEA agent
Reasonable suspicion is insufficient to permit a general Christopher Gale, which explained that interception was
search under the Constitution. Reasonable suspicion may necessary because normal investigative procedures had
be sufficient for police to perform a protective search of a been tried and failed or appeared unlikely to succeed if
vehicles passenger compartment for weapons to ensure tried. The district court approved the application.
officer safety, permissibility of automobile frisks for lim- Based on phone calls intercepted pursuant to the wire-
ited purpose of ensuring officer safety in presence of tap of Target Telephone 4, the government concluded that
armed or dangerous suspects), but more is needed to justi- Billy was Richard North, and thatNorth and Primer
fy a full search of the interior of the vehicle. In this case, were planning a delivery of cocaine to Jackson,
the police needed probable cause or another factor justify- Mississippi.
ing a warrantless search under the Fourth Amendment Agents also received a copy of Norths driver s license
such as consentin order to carry out a full search of the photograph. On the date in question, agents learned that
interior. Accord Florida v. Royer, 460 U.S. 491, 499 North was en route to Jackson from Houston, Texas. Texas
(explaining that Terry is a limited exception to the proba- state troopers stopped North for speeding. Norths vehicle
ble cause rule). The district court held that the full range was searched by officers and drug-sniffing dogs, but no
of this search was supported by Powells voluntary con- cocaine was found. Three hours after he was stopped,
sent or, in the alternative, by the existence of probable North was released. Immediately after the stop, a third

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