The “Anonymous-Tip-Plus-Very-Little-Else” Rule

The “Anonymous-Tip-Plus-Very-Little-Else” Rule

Robert C. Phillips
Deputy District Attorney (Ret.)
June, 2014

The United States Supreme Court determined over a decade ago in Florida v. J.L. that an uncorroborated anonymous tip is legally insufficient to justify a detention and a patdown for weapons.  The problem with this rule is that it makes it unnecessarily dangerous for an officer to approach a potentially armed suspect when based on nothing more than an anonymous tip.

Contacting a potentially deadly suspect without the legal power to protect oneself is not a position in which any law enforcement officer likes to find him or herself.  California courts, believe it or not, have been uncomfortable with this as well.  The courts, therefore, have been looking for exceptions.  The United States Supreme Court has finally followed California’s lead and instituted a new rule that we might appropriately entitle the “anonymous-tip-plus-very-little-else” rule.

In Navarette v. California (Apr. 22, 2014)134 S. Ct. 1683, the High Court held, although in a context wholly different than in J.L., that an anonymous tip concerning a driver of a ....