About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

3 Md. J. Contemp. Legal Issues 153 (1992)
Not by Flight Alone: When Should Police Stop Fleeing Citizens

handle is hein.journals/mjcolei3 and id is 157 raw text is: NOT BY FUGHT ALONE: WHEN SHOULD POLICE STOP FLEEING CITIZENS by George E. Bums, Jr.' Since the Supreme Court of the United States first applied search and seizure jurisprudence to street encounters between police and citizens where no arrest was contemplated, the Court has struggled with the question of what basis the police must have before initiating such encounters. The Court has, until now, used a blend of police experience and articulated reasons for justifying the encounters to balance law enforcement against citizen privacy. Lastyear, this balance was called into question. In Califomia v. Hodari D.,2 two officers in an unmarked car wearing street clothes but with jackets embossed with the word police were patrolling a high-crime area in Oakland late in the evening when they saw four or five youths huddled around a small red car parked at the curb. When the youths saw the officers' car approaching, they apparently panicked and took flight.3 The police pursued and made a stop. The legality of this stop was not an issue to be decided by the Supreme Court.4 Nevertheless, the majority opinion contained the following footnote that suggests that flight alone might be a sufficient basis for an investigatory stop: California conceded below that Officer Pertoso did not have the reasonable suspicion required to justify stopping Hodari, see Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (1968). That it would be unreasonable to stop, for brief inquiry, young men who scatter in panic upon the mere sighting of the police is not self-evident, and arguably contradicts proverbial common sense. See, Proverbs 28:1 (-The wicked flee when no man pursuethi}. We do not decide that point here, but rely entirely upon the State's concession.s 'Of Counsel, Maryland Public Defender's Office. 2__U.S. , 11 S. Ct. 1547(1991). 3d. at 1549. *The only issue decided by the Hodari Court was that a suspect who flees after a police command to stop has not been seized until under police control. The effect of this holding is that the fleeing suspect who drops evidence has abandoned it and because there has been no seizure of the suspect, the Fourth Amendment is inapplicable. 5111 S. Ct. at 1549 n.1.

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most