In the latest foray into the minefield of police-citizen encounters, a deeply divided Manhattan appellate panel held Tuesday that the presence of a suspicious-looking man in a crime-ridden public housing building did not give police a right to question the individual.
“Presence in a high-crime or drug-prone location, without more, does not furnish an objective credible reason for the police to approach an individual and request information,” a 3-2 majority of the Appellate Division, First Department, said in suppressing gun evidence. “Nor does an individual’s desire to avoid contact with the police—even in a high-crime neighborhood—constitute an objective credible reason for making [an] inquiry.”
