These are your rights during a stop and frisk in Philly

Being stopped by the police and frisked for weapons is a practice that’s been around in the U.S. for more than 50 years. It’s a controversial practice, because it’s not always effective, legal, and has been disproportionately (and unconstitutionally) used to target Black and Latino people.

In Philadelphia, class action lawsuits forced the city to reform how they use stop and frisk. For the past decade, the practice has been court-supervised, and the number of people in Philly being stopped and frisked by police has gone down — from more than 300,000 pedestrians being stopped per year at its peak in 2015 to 13,206 in 2021.

However, police are still using the practice to disproportionately stop Black people, according to the most recent court reports filed in 2020.

Police say they use stop and frisk to find and seize firearms to prevent violent crime.

Here are some facts about stop and frisk in Philly:

Anton Moore, a South Philly resident who’s been stopped by the police before, says that using the tactic not only doesn’t work, it creates harm. As the founder of local nonprofit Unity in the Community and the 48th Ward Leader, Moore and others across Philly signed an open letter to Mayor Kenney in 2020 to end stop and frisk.

“The average person is not out here doing shootings, so we shouldn’t be stopped,” said Moore. “But if you go to a neighborhood and talk to residents, they’re going to tell you who is disturbing their neighborhood. The goal should be to identify who those people are and provide them with the resources to change their lives.”

Instead of stop and frisk, Moore said, police and communities should identify high-risk individuals early on to prevent gun violence and connect them to jobs, training, behavioral health, and other social services. The city’s own plan to end gun violence, Roadmap to Safer Communities, has integrated this approach and hopes to have reached out to each person they’ve identified as being involved or at high-risk for gun violence by 2023.

While the city is trying to reduce gun violence through more strategic approaches — and has reduced the use of stop and frisk — stop and frisks have not ended in Philly.

It can still happen to you. What do you do if you are stopped by the police?

Stop and frisk is a procedure that police use to stop people on the street that they believe are involved in criminal activity — and then frisk them to search for weapons if they believe they’re armed.

This doesn’t mean they have concrete evidence that you committed a crime or that they can arrest you. It means they suspect that you are involved in criminal activity and want to stop you for investigation.

The police decide what is considered criminal activity and it’s up to them if they think you’re armed. So, while you may not be committing a crime or carrying a gun, you could be walking near a crime and the police decide that you should be stopped. If they suspect that you have a weapon, they will frisk you.

But, as lawsuits have shown, not every stop and frisk in Philly is legally conducted.

The Fourth Amendment establishes people’s rights against unreasonable searches and seizures of property, unless police have a warrant or “probable cause,” meaning concrete evidence of a person committing a crime. However, in the Supreme Court case Terry vs. Ohio, judges ruled that it’s not unconstitutional for police to stop a person that they “reasonably suspect” to be involved in criminal activity or frisk that person if they believe they’re armed.

In order for a stop and frisk to be legal:

Remember, all of this is up to police judgment and during the interaction police don’t have to prove their suspicions or even tell you why you were stopped. Police would only have to prove their suspicions in court (after the fact) if you were charged with a crime, or a civil lawsuit or complaint was brought against them.

“Can I go?”

According to Mary Catherine Roper, a civil rights lawyer and member of the legal team whose lawsuits against the city led to reform, the first thing you should do is ask police if you’re being detained. If you’re not being detained, police are not supposed to hold you there.

If you are being detained, the police are allowed to hold you in order to verify your identity and check for outstanding warrants.

Do not say anything unnecessary to the police. The only necessary piece of information you need to provide is your identity. Other than giving your full name and address, you don’t need to answer any further questions. Remember: Anything you say to police can be used against you in court.

You have to identify yourself. Whether you give them your ID or your full name and address, you won’t be able to leave until you are identified. You should give police your correct name and address; if you are considered to be lying to the police during questioning, this is illegal and can land you in trouble.

If you refuse to stop for questioning or refuse to identify yourself, you can be detained, arrested, or worse in some cases.

According to Moore, if you have your phone in hand, start recording video or audio. If there’s someone you can text, let them know you are being stopped by the police.

Unfortunately, there’s nothing you can do. After the police have stopped you — if they believe that you are armed, then they are legally allowed to frisk you. This is completely up to police judgment — whether the frisk is illegal or not can only be addressed later down the road.

Remember: The time to act on this police interaction is after the fact. There’s nothing that can be done during the interaction, but there may be legal remedies later.

Officers will likely say that you are going to be frisked to ensure officer safety during your interaction because they suspect you are armed. However, in some situations police won’t give you an explanation.

You are not allowed to refuse the frisk. They will pat you down to feel for weapons. If police don’t find anything illegal and you aren’t being associated with a crime then you should be free to go.

If you have a weapon: You should tell the officer where it is before they touch you and let them reach for it — not you. Once the officer thinks or knows you have a weapon — Do not reach for it.

Even if you aren’t armed, police can suspect that you have a gun simply by a bulge in your clothing or bag. Stop and frisks are up to police discretion, and not complying with police orders can result in your arrest or worse in some cases.

If there are weapons, they will see if you are legally carrying it. If you are legally carrying and not involved in criminal activity, then you should be let go. If officers find illegal weapons or items in your possession during the frisk, then you will most likely be arrested.

Police are only allowed to touch the outer fabric of your clothing or possessions. They will use their hands to pat your clothing down — and the exterior of your bag if you have one — to check for weapons.

They are not supposed to search inside your clothing or possessions. In order for police to legally and fully search your belongings they need proof that you are involved in criminal activity. However, if police identify an object that feels like a firearm or illegal substance — they are allowed to go into that pocket or other place to seize those items.

If police identify and find illegal items on you during the frisk, such as drugs, you could be arrested.

You were just stopped by the police and they frisked you. However, you know you didn’t commit a crime and believe the police did this in an inappropriate or illegal manner. What can you do?

You can try contacting a lawyer, but they are often quite selective about what stop and frisk cases they take on. If you were arrested because of this stop or frisk, then you should contact a defense lawyer or ask for a public defender.

You’ll want to provide as much information as possible in order to identify the police officers responsible.

You’ll need to file the complaint with the police department you engaged with. For Philadelphia, that’s the Philadelphia Police Department (PPD). You can file the complaint directly with PPD or through the city’s Citizens Police Oversight Commission (CPOC).

If you believe you have been stopped or frisked illegally, you can contact the lawyers who sued the city to end illegal stops — but only if you were not arrested as a result of the stop. It’s unlikely that they will take legal action for you, but the information will help them when filing reports about stop and frisk in court.

If you were arrested, you should only speak to your defense attorney about the incident.

You have to send a letter providing the time, date, and location where you were stopped, and either the badge or car number of the officer involved. Include your name and contact info, and send the letter to: Bailey Litigation, Kairys Rudovsky Messing Feinberg and Lin LLP, 718 Arch Street, Suite 501 South, Philadelphia, PA 19106

Lawyers that work on stop and frisk cases are quite selective about what cases they take on, because they would usually take on a case as a class action, so it’s unlikely that a lawyer will take on a case for a single stop and frisk incident. But the clients they do represent usually aren’t charged for services unless there is a settlement or judgment in court.

If you want to talk to a lawyer, you can contact the Philadelphia Defenders Association’s Police Accountability Unit at pau@philadefender.org. They also provide guidance on filing police complaints.

You can also try and find a lawyer through the Philadelphia Bar Association. Call 215-238-6333 to get started.

The Philadelphia Inquirer is one of more than 20 news organizations producing Broke in Philly, a collaborative reporting project on solutions to poverty and the city’s push toward economic justice. See all of our reporting at brokeinphilly.org.