41L-Stop & Frisk and Threshold Inquiries 2019

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Policy & Procedure Page 1 of 8 Lexington Police Department Subject: Stop And Frisk and Threshold Inquires Policy Number: 41L Accreditation Standards: Reference: 1.2.3(a); 1.2.4(b) Effective Date: 3/11/13  New  Revised Revision Dates: 1/24/19 By Order of: Mark J. Corr, Chief of Police The Municipal Police Institute, Inc. (MPI) is a private, nonprofit charitable affiliate of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association. MPI provides training and model policies and procedures for police agencies. This policy is an edited version of MPI Policy 1.07, “Stop and Frisk and Threshold Inquiries.” GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS AND GUIDELINES Any individual walking down the street is insulated from police action by the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Therefore, before police can effect a seizure or detention, even if only momentarily, the police must have adequate cause to do so. On the other hand, police officers often engage people on the street in conversation and are encouraged to do so under the community policing philosophy. Simply walking over to a person and engaging in a conversation is not a seizure or detention, it is just a conversation and nothing more. The person talking with the officer has an absolute right to walk away in such encounter. A police officer, in appropriate circumstances, may temporarily stop and briefly detain a person for the purpose of inquiring into possible criminal behavior even though the officer does not have probable cause to make a lawful arrest at that time. In addition, an officer may frisk such a person for weapons as a matter of self-protection when the officer reasonably believes that his/her own safety, or that of others nearby, is endangered. The purpose of this temporary detention for questioning is to enable the police officer to determine whether to make an arrest, investigate further, or to take no police action at that time. (M.G.L. Ch. 41 § 98) This policy recognizes that police officers are also charged with community caretaking functions that do not require judicial justification. These do not include the detection, investigation or the acquisition of evidence related to crime, i.e. approaching a vehicle parked in a breakdown lane will not be an investigatory stop or checking on motorists in rest areas.i A search for weapons is permissible where a police officer has reason to believe that [s]he is dealing with an armed and dangerous individual, regardless of whether the officer has probable cause to arrest for a crime. The officer need not be absolutely