Writing Resources
Law enforcement officers in the United States often perform Terry stops as part of the work routinely associated with police patrol In policing the term Terry Stops which refers to the stop and frisk practice was coined in 1968 and derives from the Supreme Court case Terry v Ohio 392 U S 1 1968 In that landmark case it was ruled that the Fourth Amendment constitutional right made applicable to the States through the Fourteenth Amendment that prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures of individuals by American government agents is not violated when police officers detain for a short period time an individual whom they reasonably believe to be committing have committed or about to commit a criminal activity In the above mentioned Supreme Court case John W Terry Richard Chilton and Carl Katz were observed by detective Martin McFadden a plainclothes Cleveland Police Department policeman Based on his many years of experience in the police forces the officer believed that these men were casing a job a stick up thus he decided to stop and pat down the three men s outer clothing upon which he recovered a revolver in Terry s overcoat pocket and another one in Chilton s outside clothing upon which both men were charged convicted and sentenced to a three year imprisonment for carrying a concealed weapon Terry s and Chilton s defense counsel who had unsuccessfully tried to have the case dismissed at trial on grounds that the seizure and the subsequent search were a violation of the
