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Hey guys, it's Anthony Bandiero Here attorney and senior legal instructor for blue to gold law enforcement training, bringing you another roadside chat from the studio. This question comes from an officer in Florida. And he asks, have courts relaxed the manipulation rule? Under Terry pat downs? So what the officers talking about here is a case that's called Minnesota versus Dickerson, US Supreme Court. Basically what happened there were officers patted down Dickerson, they felt an item in his pocket while during the pat down. And they described the path and you know, when they're feeling sad, they described it as manipulating it, feeling it, pinching it, squeezing it, to basically determine whether or not it was drugs, right. And then they felt, you know, that that was a rock like substance. And that combined with all the other circumstances, while the stop was made in the first place, because we thought that drug activity is occurring.

The court, the cops knew that it was, you know, potentially rock cocaine, or at least had probable cause? Don't you want to know it? But you had probable cause? They removed it? Sure enough, they're correct. And we're going to the US Supreme Court. So the US Supreme Court held that in that case, right. The cops manipulation of the item failed to satisfy the playing field doctrine, or the plain touch doctrine, wherever you want to call it. But they did say if while patting somebody down, an officer feels an item that is immediately apparent. Remember that immediately apparent as contraband evidence, fruits or instrumentalities, of a crime and so forth, that they could go into the pocket and seize it. Now, back to the original question, the officer is asking, have courts relaxed this rule? And the answer is no. They're very strict on it. If a cop goes to court, and is asked, at the time that you felt this item in the pocket,

did you believe that it was a weapon or something that could hurt you? And then they in the officer says, No, I knew at that point, that it's not something that can hurt me. Okay. But you continue to feel the item? Yes. And how describe how you felt that item and so forth? Well, I felt that I put my hand in it, you know, I pinched it, I squeezed it...