State in the Interest of C.B

In State in the Interest of C.B., 315 N.J. Super. 567, 572, 719 A.2d 206 (App.Div.1998), an officer received a radio dispatch to investigate a report of a man with a gun at the intersection of 9th and Pearl Streets. The dispatch was based on an anonymous tip. 315 N.J. Super. at 571, 719 A.2d 206. The tip did not include a description of the person suspected in possession of the gun. When the officers arrived on the scene, they observed three or four men; one was the defendant. When the juvenile suspect saw the police approaching, he fled on his bicycle. He then stopped, got off his bicycle, and put his hands in his pockets. Ibid. At this point, the officers left their van, approached the suspect, and directed him to remove his hands from his pockets. One of the officers grabbed the defendant's hands and pulled them out of his pockets. As the defendant's hands came out of his pockets, a sandwich bag containing marijuana fell to the ground. The Court found because the information received by the police did not include any description of the appearance of the man allegedly in possession of a gun and because the police observed three of four persons standing around when they arrived at the location identified by the informant, the anonymous tip was not sufficiently corroborated to justify an investigative stop and weapons search of the defendant. The Court found, however, that under the totality of the circumstances known at the time, which included the anonymous information concerning a man with a gun at the intersection of 9th and Pearl Streets, the juvenile's flight from that intersection, and the juvenile's thrusting of his hands into his pockets as the police approached, there was an objectively reasonable basis for suspicion that he was armed and dangerous. Id. at 577, 719 A.2d 206. The Court ultimately held the limited intrusion involved in the officers pulling the juvenile's hands out of his pockets did not constitute an unconstitutional search and seizure. Id. at 577, 719 A.2d 206.