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State v. Boyea12/1/2000
content of the information possessed by police and its degree of reliability." White, 496 U.S. at 330. In White, an anonymous call reported that Vanessa White would leave a specific apartment in an apartment complex at a particular time, in a brown Plymouth station wagon with the right taillight broken, would drive to Dobey's Motel, and that she would be carrying an ounce of cocaine. Id. at 337. Officers observed a woman emerge from the apartment complex at the specified time, enter the described car, and follow the exact route outlined in the anonymous tip. The Court upheld the stop, while acknowledging that it was a "close case," id. at 332, and, in fact, three justices dissented forcefully. For the majority, the police corroboration of the tip information established that the tipster was reliable and the tipster's ability to predict White's behavior indicated the basis of knowledge behind the tip. The Court reasoned that, " ecause only a small number of people are generally privy to an individual's itinerary, it is reasonable for police to believe that a person with access to such information is likely to also have access to reliable information about that individual's illegal activities." Id. Because the informant had been proven to be reliable by corroboration of its predictions and the content of the tip was very detailed and specific, the Court upheld the stop.
The White Court explained the connection between reliability and content as an inverse relationship. "Reasonable suspicion . . . is dependent upon both the content of information possessed by police and its degree of reliability. . . . f a tip has a relatively low degree of reliability, more information will be required to establish the requisite quantum of suspicion than would be required if the tip were more reliable." Id. at 330. The Court instructed that the totality of the circumstances approach gives "the anonymous tip the weight it deserve in light of its indicia of reliability as established through independent police work." Id. The Court distinguished the White information from other tips consisting of "easily obtained facts and conditions existing at the time of the tip." Id. at 332. Thus, "easily obtained facts and conditions existing at the time of tip" do not establish the reliability of a tip and form little support for reasonable suspicion.
The J.L. Court noted that the tip lacked even the "moderate indicia of reliability present in White," J.L., 120 S. Ct. at 1379, and it concluded that public information, such as a description of appearance, does not provide a basis for judging the tipster's reliability. Information that simply "identif a determinate person," id., but does not indicate a special or confidential relationship between the informant and the subject of the tip, does not make a tip reliable, even when police can corroborate it, as they did in J.L. The Fourth Amendment requires reliability of a different type. Such reliability may be shown by an informant explaining how she/he knows about the illegal behavior, or by other information that demonstrates the informant has "inside information." Id. Because the J.L. tipster did not indicate such a confidential relationship, nor any other indication of reliability, the tip was not reliable as a basis for the stop-and-frisk.
Reliability, the Supreme Court instructed, may not be dispensed with even in a case involving the immediate and obvious danger of firearms. See id. The Court therefore held that police may not conduct Terry stops "on the basis of bare-boned tips about guns" because "the Fourth Amendment is not so easily satisfied." Id. at 1380. The Court suggested parenthetically that creating a dangerousness exception for Terry-stop requirement
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Vermont DUI Attorneys
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