Anatomy of a Police Interaction: Citizen Kenny and Officer Branch Blog Post Series – Part 2
Probable Cause to Arrest
In Part One, we discussed reasonable articulable suspicion involving Officer Branch and Citizen Kenny. Officer Branch possessed reasonable articulable suspicion to approach Kenny to conduct an investigative stop. In this blog post, we will pick up where Officer Branch approaches Kenny to conduct the stop.
At this point, Officer Branch does not have the probable cause to make an arrest or conduct a search of Kenny; however, with the reasonable articulable suspicion he is able to detain Kenny and develop his probable cause.
The Atlanta Police Department policy provides that:
“Probable Cause is that set of facts and circumstances that would lead a reasonable and prudent person to believe that a crime has been committed or is being committed and that the person in question is involved in a significant manner. It is more than mere suspicion, but less than actual certainty.”
How might this look with our scenario involving Officer Branch and Kenny?
Officer Branch approaches Kenny and asks, “What’s good?” Kenny responds that nothing is happening, and he is just waiting on a friend to pick him up to go downtown. Officer Branch asks Kenny the name of his friend to which Kenny responds that he is not playing that game, and all is good. Officer Branch informs Kenny that he had been watching him for the past 30 minutes and needs to talk to him about a few things. Kenny responded that he didn’t have anything that he needed to talk with Officer Branch about. Kenny’s eyes dart to the left and right. As Kenny attempts to move to the left, Officer Branch grabs his arm and tells him not so fast and that he is detaining him. Officer Branch asked Kenny if he had any weapons or anything on him that would harm him. Kenny said, “No.” Officer Branch informed him that he was going to do a quick pat down of his outer clothing to make sure everything is good before they talk. Officer Branch turns Kenny around and does a pat search and finds a gun in his waistband and notices a bulge with bumps that feels like loose pills in Kenny’s left jeans pocket. Kenny tells Officer Branch that the pills are only vitamins. Officer Branch retrieves the gun and secures it. He advises Kenny that he is placing him in handcuffs while he checks a few things out.
Officer Kenny radios for officer assistance and a nearby officer responds to assist. Officer Branch asks for Kenny’s name and identification. Kenny responds with his first and last name. Officer Branch runs Kenny’s name and receives information that Kenny has a felony robbery conviction. Officer Branch has probable cause to arrest Kenny for gun possession by a felon. Kenny is a felon and had possession of a firearm, which was found on his person during the investigative detention.
While the responding officer is watching Kenny, Officer Branch enters the store to check the store’s surveillance cameras for evidence of drug dealing. While watching the store’s video cameras, Officer Branch observes Kenny conduct several hand-to-hand drug transactions, handing items that appear to be drugs to others in exchange for money. The store’s cameras capture Kenny’s actions from a couple of angles. Officer Branch records his observations on his body worn camera.
Based on the totality of the circumstances, information from the store cameras, personal observations of Kenny’s actions, knowledge gained from roll call, and his training and experience, Officer Branch believes he has established probable cause to charge Kenny with drug possession and distribution as well as gun possession by a felon. Officer Branch approaches Kenny to arrest him for the gun possession and to conduct a search incident to an arrest.
The next blog post will discuss search incident to an arrest.