California Court of Appeal

Officers may not, as a matter of standard procedure and in the name of "officer safety," detain and frisk a driver stopped for an equipment infraction solely on the basis that the stop occurs in a high crime area at night. The Fourth Amendment does not permit such an intrusion and any incriminating evidence flowing from the illegal contact, including statements made by the driver, is inadmissible.

Appellate Information

• Decided 07/03/2003
• Published 07/03/2003

Judges

• PERREN, J.

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
•  Geri Lynn Green, San Francisco, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant., Bill Lockyer, Attorney General, Robert R. Anderson, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Pamela C. Hamanaka, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Susan D. Martynec, Supervising Deputy Attorney General, Suzann E. Papagoda, Deputy Attorney General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.