What is a terry stop? How do I know if it was legal?

Law enforcement officers may stop and ask you questions if they have reasonable suspicion you are engaging in or about to engage in criminal activity. This is known as a Terry stop, investigative detention, or stop and frisk. However, if you have been detained like this, you may wonder, “What is a Terry stop? How do I know if it was legal?”

Getting stopped by police is not always legitimate, and your rights could be violated if the officers don’t follow the right procedures. Fighting back against unfair charges can be done with the help of a skilled St. Louis criminal defense lawyer.

What is a Terry stop by police?

In the case of Terry v. Ohio, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police can stop and question people if they have reasonable suspicion they are committing or about to commit a crime. The court further granted officers the right to perform a pat-down search on the person for weapons if they believed the person was armed and dangerous. This action is known today as a Terry stop.

Officers have argued that Terry stops help them identify and detain individuals before suspects can go through with committing a crime. They also believe Terry stops reduce the risk to officers’ safety on the job by removing weapons before they can be used.

Officers use a number of factors, either alone or in combination, to justify a Terry stop. These include:

• Time of day
• Unusual location or presence
• High crime areas
• Suspicious clothing
• Suspicious actions
• Smell of alcohol, drugs, or other materials, such as gasoline
• Unusual or suspicious sounds
• Nervous behavior
• Tips or statements from witnesses
• Knowledge of past criminal activity by a suspect
• Statements by the suspect overheard by officers

What is an example of a Terry stop? 

Let’s discuss an example of a Terry stop. Suppose local police are patrolling a neighborhood when the officers notice a vehicle parked and running with its lights off. When the officers walk up to the window of the car, the driver appears to be sleeping. After knocking on the window, the officers observe the driver to be groggy and disoriented. When the police question the driver, his speech is slurred and he does not know where he is.

Sleeping in a parked car combined with the unusual behavior provided a justifiable reason to detain the driver for further investigation. When the officers ask to search the vehicle, due to reasonable suspicion, they find a number of pills under the seat which appear to be fentanyl.  The driver is arrested for fentanyl possession.

Another instance would be if a pedestrian were loitering on the street and frequently engaged in very short conversations with others who quickly left the area. With careful observation, the officers determine the individual appears to be selling drugs. They may stop and question the people leaving the scene. With the activity and witness statements, they may decide to conduct a Terry stop on the person on the street.

What is the purpose of a Terry stop?

The purpose of a Terry stop is to briefly question and examine a person’s actions and behavior to verify if the person is engaging in criminal activity. They are looking to establish probable cause so they can arrest the individual with the intent of preventing a crime or apprehending someone who has just committed an offense.

Officers may also wish to investigate a suspicious situation and will use a Terry stop to gather information from people in the area. The officers may choose to document the stop so they can record names, addresses, frequent locations, and other details about the individuals. These can be added to a list that investigators can reference when attempting to identify suspects.

How long can a Terry stop last?

The length of time you may spend during a Terry stop depends on what the officers believe is happening and how you answer their questions. If you seem suspicious, they may take longer as they try to elicit some response or behavior that provides probable cause to arrest you. Innocent people get nervous when approached by police, giving the officers reason to believe they are engaging in a crime when they are not. If you are doing nothing wrong and can remain calm and answer truthfully, your Terry stop should last only a few minutes.

The longer a stop goes on, the more information the officers can obtain. Everything they hear, see, and smell can contribute to the factors they need to arrest the person. Because these interactions rarely take very long, they aren’t considered a violation of a person’s rights, so there is no need for a Miranda reading. In fact, in Missouri, they do not have to read you these rights until you are arrested and taken into custody.

Learn more with JCS Law

If you have questions like, “What’s a Terry stop?” or “How do I fight an unfair criminal charge?” a qualified and experienced criminal defense attorney from JCS Law can help. Contact us by calling (314) 561-9690 or use our online form to schedule a free consultation today.

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