THE MAJORITY HELD THAT DEFENDANT’S FLIGHT PROVIDED REASONABLE SUSPICION OF CRIMINALITY JUSTIFYING PURSUIT IN THIS STREET STOP SCENARIO; THE DISSENT ARGUED FLIGHT ALONE DURING A LEVEL TWO ENCOUNTER DOES NOT JUSTIFY PURSUIT (FOURTH DEPT).

The Fourth Department, after a detailed analysis of the De Bour criteria for a street stop, determined the initial encounter with defendant was lawful, the request for consent to frisk the defendant was lawful, and defendant’s flight provided reasonable suspicion of criminality justifying pursuit. The dissent agued the information available to the police never provided more than a level two right to inquire:

From the dissent:

I respectfully dissent inasmuch as I conclude that the pursuit of defendant was unlawful. At the time the two officers in question approached defendant, they mistakenly believed that they could properly detain defendant. The information they had before them, a general description of a suspect, gave them, as the majority agrees, a level two right to inquire … . In other words, defendant, at the time the officers approached him, had the right to be let alone.

The majority concludes that the degree of suspicion ripened from founded suspicion of criminality to reasonable suspicion upon defendant’s flight, thereby justifying the officers’ pursuit. ” ‘Flight alone, however, or even in conjunction with equivocal circumstances that might justify a police request for information, is insufficient to justify pursuit because an individual has a right to be let alone and refuse to respond to police inquiry’ ” … . A level two founded suspicion of criminality plus flight cannot equate to level three reasonable suspicion or else a defendant’s right to be let alone during a level two encounter will be rendered utterly meaningless. In my view, the majority ignores binding New York jurisprudence on this point in favor of a standard that erodes the rights that individuals maintain in a level two encounter. As the Court of Appeals recently reiterated, “an individual’s flight from a level one or two police encounter, without more, does not provide the reasonable suspicion necessary to pursue them” … , and defendant, during the lawful level two encounter, and even upon the officers’ requests and his momentary acquiescence, retained his “right to be let alone and refuse to respond to police inquiry” … . People v Smith, 2025 NY Slip Op 04317, Fourth Dept 7-25-25

Practice Point: Consult this decision and the dissent for insight into when a defendant’s flight during a level two street stop will justify police pursuit.