Can Reasonable Suspicion be Based on an Anonymous 911 Tip?

On any given Friday or Saturday night, you might see signs on the side of the freeway advising drivers to report anyone they suspect of drunk driving to 911. But can you really be stopped and arrested for drunk driving just because someone reported you to the police? And if so, are there other situations where a call to 911 could provide police officers sufficient reasonable suspicion to stop or search someone? Like many legal issues, the answers are complex.

What is Reasonable Suspicion?

Reasonable suspicion is a legal standard that applies when a police officer has some factual basis to believe that a crime may have taken place, is taking place currently, or will take place in the immediate future. While it must be based on more than a simple hunch or suspicion, reasonable suspicion is a lower standard than probable cause. As a result, reasonable suspicion is only sufficient to provide an officer grounds for detaining or frisking someone but not for searching or arresting someone.

Traffic Stops Require Reasonable Suspicion

Courts are required to balance the Fourth Amendment rights of an individual suspect against the best interests of society as a whole. To do so, courts have ruled that a concerned citizen’s tip to 911 may be sufficient to provide police with reasonable suspicion that a crime is occurring. However, some conditions must be met in the case where a call was anonymous, and the police do not personally observe any signs of criminal activity.

In most situations, officers prefer to secure their own basis for reasonable suspicion, typically tailing a suspect for a while to look for indications of criminal activity, but they are not legally required to do so before stopping someone.

On the other hand, once officers have stopped someone, they must find enough evidence to justify a search or arrest of the individual or allow them to go free in a timely manner.

Does Reasonable Suspicion Permit Officers to Frisk Someone?

Yes. A tip that provides police officers with reasonable suspicion can justify their frisking the outside of a suspect’s clothing to search for weapons or contraband. However, because the standard for frisking someone is not as high as it is to search them, a frisk cannot involve:

• reaching into the individual’s pockets or other clothing
• groping the suspect
• manipulating objects inside the clothing
• seizing or searching the suspect’s phone

If the officer believes they have felt a weapon or contraband through someone’s clothing, however, they may remove this from the suspect’s clothing.

Questioning the Validity of a Call

While a 911 call may serve as sufficient reasonable suspicion, not just any 911 call will suffice. To justify action by a police officer, the call must either come from a credible source (generally, an individual willing to put their name on the record is sufficient) or a call from an anonymous caller must contain an “indicia of reliability.”

The standards defining when anonymous tips are sufficient to establish reasonable suspicion were developed in the 2014 United States Supreme Court case of Navarette V California. In their ruling, the justices ruled that if a 911 call is anonymous, there should be some way to verify the call and the caller’s identity to protect individuals from being targeted by fraudulent accusations. Under this ruling, the call must be:

• made by an eyewitness of the crime with enough details to indicate the reliability of what they saw
• happen during or just after a crime occurred, so the witness would not have time to fabricate a story
• recorded so it can be reviewed again later
• made from a traceable number so it could be subpoenaed later on to evaluate its accuracy

How a Defense Lawyer Can Help

If you were stopped based on the word of an anonymous 911 caller, your defense attorney can request a copy of the 911 call and, if warranted, subpoena phone records and data to find out if the call met the standards developed under the Navarette test. If the officer did not independently observe questionable behavior or actions to establish their own reasonable suspicion and the cell phone records prove the 911 tipster didn’t meet the standards set forth by the Supreme Court, the stop itself may be declared invalid. When this happens, all related evidence could be suppressed, resulting in the charges against you being dropped.

Similarly, even if the call seemed valid enough, your lawyer may be able to have the case against you dropped if they can show the officer who stopped you did not have probable cause to:

• search you, your home, or your vehicle
• ask you to perform a sobriety test
• arrest you

If you have been charged with a crime and believe an anonymous tip may have led to your arrest, call Peter M. Liss as soon as possible. Please call (760) 643-4050 to schedule a free initial consultation at Mr. Liss’ defense office across the street from the Vista courthouse and county jail.

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