People v. Chestnut

In People v. Chestnut (51 NY2d 14), police watched two men and a woman in a phone booth. One man left the booth, looked over his shoulder several times, turned and then looked back again toward the booth. Police next saw the man in a schoolyard hand something to another man. In the meantime, they received a report of a robbery that just occurred at a nearby intersection, which included a description of a man, armed with a silver gun. (The man they were watching fit the description. ) When the officers stopped him, they drew weapons and ordered him to lie on the ground to frisk him. The Court of Appeals said that, under the circumstances, the police acted reasonably in effecting this "stop and frisk." In so deciding, the Court noted, "when the intrusion involved is of sufficient magnitude, an 'arrest' will be said to occur, whether or not the person is eventually transported to the police station and charged with a crime. However, it is equally as clear that not every seizure constitutes an arrest. [Citation omitted.]" (People v. Chestnut, at 20.)