People v. Terrance

The hearing court properly denied defendant’s motion to suppress a gravity knife recovered from his person. Under the facts presented, a police officer was permitted to remove a knife from defendant’s person during a common-law inquiry, even though the officer had no reason to believe it was an illegal knife until after he acquired it.

It is undisputed that the officer was entitled to make a common-law inquiry based on his observations that defendant was carrying a type of bag associated with shoplifting and appeared to be casing a store. The officer also observed that defendant’s back pocket…