State v. Russell

¶1 In certain situations, a police officer may briefly frisk a person to search for weapons that might pose a risk to officer and bystander safety. When justified, these protective frisks do not violate the constitutional prohibi*864tion against unreasonable invasions of individual privacy. In this case, we are asked to further define the permissible scope of these protective frisks. An officer stopped Tanner Zachary Roy Russell for violating several minor traffic laws. The officer recognized Russell from a previous encounter where Russell told officers he was not armed, when in fact he had a…