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Illinois v. Wardlow

One of the freedoms guaranteed under the Fourth Amendment is the right “to be secure … against unreasonable searches and seizures,” and Americans expect the government to enforce this right. Illinois v. Wardlow raised the question of whether police violated this Fourth Amendment right in stopping a man as he ran from police in an area known for high rates of narcotics trafficking and other crime. The U.S. Supreme Court held that the nature of the surroundings and the suspect's “unprovoked flight” created reasonable suspicion that justified the police in making an investigatory stop (Illinois v. Wardlow, 2000).

Facts of the Case

William “Sam” Wardlow was standing next to a building on West Van Buren in a part of Chicago known for high crime and narcotics trafficking. When entering the area, the police “anticipated encountering a large number of people … including drug customers and individuals serving as lookouts.” As four police cars entered the area and passed Wardlow, an officer in the last car made eye contact with Wardlow and observed him holding a white, opaque bag. When the last car had passed, Wardlow turned and ran from this area. Wardlow's flight in the presence of police cars made the officers suspicious. They intercepted him and conducted an investigative stop. For their safety, one of the officers immediately performed a pat-down for weapons, based on his past experience that weapons were likely to be present during drug trafficking. (A pat-down involves the touching of a person's outer clothing, including any packages that the person is holding, to determine if that person is armed. The U.S. Supreme Court had held in the 1968 case of Terry v. Ohio that such an action is permitted to ensure an officer's safety during an investigative stop.) An officer took the bag that Wardlow was holding and, without opening the container, felt what appeared to be a handgun. A handgun was subsequently removed from the bag, and Wardlow was arrested.

At the trial, Wardlow's counsel moved to suppress the handgun as the fruit of an illegal search that violated the defendant's Fourth Amendment rights. The Illinois court denied the suppression motion, and Wardlow was convicted of the unlawful use of a weapon. The Illinois Court of Appeals reversed the trial court, and its decision was upheld by the Illinois Supreme Court. The case was then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which granted a writ of certiorari.

The Issues

The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Terry v. Ohio (1968) established that police may conduct a brief investigatory stop of an individual when there is “reasonable, articulable suspicion of criminal activity.” This must be more than a “hunch.” In United States v. Sokolow (1999), the Court also noted that the Fourth Amendment requires a minimal level of objective justification—reasonable suspicion—for making an investigative stop. While a person's mere presence in a high-crime area alone is not sufficient for reasonable suspicion, the Court in Brown v. Texas (1979) held that police officers could look to the totality of the circumstances, including a high-crime area (Adams v. Williams, 1972) and nervous, evasive behavior (United States v. Brignoni-Ponce, 1975), in order to develop reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. In the case of Michigan v. Chesternut (1988), the court noted that police officers' “investigatory pursuit” of a fleeing suspect did not constitute a seizure. Determining reasonable suspicion is based on “commonsense judgments and inferences about human behavior” (United States v. Cortez, 1981).

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