Illinois v. Wardlow

Facts

On September 9, 1995, Officers Nolan and Harvey, uniformed officers in the special operations section of the Chicago Police Department, rode in the last car of a four-car caravan. The caravan, eight officers in all, was converging on an area known for heavy narcotics trafficking to investigate drug transactions. The officers expected a crowd there, including lookouts and customers. As the caravan passed 4035 West Van Buren, Officer Nolan saw Wardlow standing next to a building, holding an opaque bag. Wardlow looked toward the officers and fled. The officers turned their car, watched him run through a gangway and an alley, and cornered him on the street. Nolan got out and stopped him. Nolan at once did a protective patdown for weapons, because in his experience weapons were common near narcotics transactions. During the frisk, Nolan squeezed the bag and felt a heavy, hard object shaped like a gun. He opened the bag and found a .38-caliber handgun with five live rounds of ammunition. The officers arrested Wardlow for violating an Illinois firearms statute.

Issues

1. Does a person's unprovoked flight upon seeing police officers in an area known for heavy narcotics trafficking give an officer reasonable suspicion to make a brief investigative stop under the Fourth Amendment?
2. Is unprovoked flight only an exercise of a person's right to ignore the police and go about his business, so that it cannot support a stop?

Holding

Wardlow's unprovoked flight upon noticing police in an area of heavy narcotics trafficking justified Officer Nolan in suspecting criminal activity and investigating further. The stop therefore did not violate the Fourth Amendment. The Court did not decide whether the frisk was lawful apart from the stop.