Basic Underlying Concepts: Property, Privacy, Probable Cause and Reasonableness

Yes. The flight of a suspect in a high crime area can amount to reasonable suspicion and justify a lawful stop and frisk by the police. In Florida v. Royer, 460 U.S. 491 (1983), the Court held that a person who is stopped by an officer without reasonable suspicion or probable cause may ignore the officer and continue on his way. However, running from the police is not an exercise of this right but instead amounts to evasive and suspicious behavior that properly leads law enforcement officers to reasonably believe unlawful activity is occurring. Furthermore, while being in a high crime area is not by itself sufficient, previous cases have considered it as a relevant factor when determining the reasonableness of police conduct. Finally, it is important to remember that, even in Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S.1 (1968), the conduct justifying the stop could have been justified with innocent explanations. The Fourth Amendment does not require that the police exhaust all lawful explanations before they may develop reasonable suspicion, and the Terry opinion acknowledges that police may stop innocent people from time-to-time. In this case, Wardlow was in a high crime area and fled as soon as he saw the police. Together, these two factors gave the police reasonable suspicion and the police lawfully conducted a Terry stop. The judgment of the state supreme court is reversed.

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