A police officer who asked the occupant of an illegally parked vehicle if there was anything in the car he "should be aware of" lacked the requisite "founded suspicion" to make the inquiry and the handgun discovered after the motorist agreed to a search should have been suppressed, an upstate appellate panel has held.
Last week’s memorandum decision by the Appellate Division, Fourth Department, comes in the wake of a December Court of Appeals decision that said police must have a founded suspicion of criminality before asking a motorist if he or she is armed (NYLJ, Dec. 18, 2012).
