No Specific Circumstances of Criminal Activity - Example Case in New York

In People v. Brogdon, 8 AD3d 290, 778 N.Y.S.2d 45 (2d Dept 2004), the court reviewed whether the police had legal cause to stop and pursue a defendant they had observed carrying two plastic bags in a drug prone location and in the company of a man the police had arrested several times for drug related offenses. The officer indicated that when he approached the defendant and the other individual, the defendant made eye contact with him and fled. The officers pursued him. During the pursuit, the defendant dropped a bag, from which the officers recovered a handgun and ammunition. In suppressing the recovered evidence, the court concluded that under these facts, "there was no specific circumstances that the defendant might be engaged in criminal activity . . . thus the pursuit of the defendant was unlawful" (Brogdon at 292).