Kudos to the Daily News for a story a few weeks back in which they pretty much told us that the sort of "Terry stops" advocated for by Michael Nutter in his crime plan are already happening in Philadelphia. This led Wendy to ask, what was the big deal?
Today's Daily News had a story about a bail commissioner who denied bail to a gun straw purchaser who had no previous record of violent crime. Bail guidelines for such a person state that he should have probably been let go on his own recognizance or had a very low bail set. This particular commissioner was fed up with this type of crime, which more than anything else has contributed to the number of guns out on the street, and said, enough. The straw purchaser was tracked down by police after they found one of his guns on a convicted felon:
On April 6, cops recovered a loaded 9 mm from James Nelson, 36, when they patted him down in West Philly, according to police records obtained by the Daily News.
Nelson - who previously had been convicted of aggravated assault - was charged with weapons violations. A subsequent check of the gun's serial number revealed that Morrison was the owner and had never reported the weapon stolen or missing.
In the sidebar story about the three guns that had been linked to the straw purchaser, we get more details about that "pat down":
April 7, 2007: Two police officers spotted James Nelson walking down 56th Street near Cedar Avenue in West Philly about 10 p.m.
The officers noticed that Nelson, 36, had a "bulge in his waist band that he continously adjusted," according to police documents obtained by the Daily News. The cops found a loaded 9 mm handgun when they patted Nelson down outside a store.
Nelson, who did not have a permit to carry, was charged with weapons violations. When investigators ran a check on the weapon's serial number, they found that Morrison was the owner of the gun and had never reported it missing or stolen.
This is a prime example of how the program that has been unfortunately distilled down to the phrase "stop and frisk" is supposed to work. Cops are rigorously trained to spot physical and behavioral cues that would give them constitutionally-protect probably cause to stop, question and search a suspect who is not otherwise committing a crime. In this case, not only did the stop result in removing a gun from someone who was very likely to use it in a crime but it has also led to the arrest and pending trial of the person who supplied that gun.
Nutter's twist to a program that is already in place seems to be that he'd put officers out into the communities where these kinds of crimes are happening the most, publicize that these searches are likely to take place and dedicate highly trained cops to the job. (My advice would be to screen for cops who are less likely to take actions that could lead to these types of lawsuits.) If it works like it has in other cities, not only would people be less likely to carry guns - thereby reducing many of the "argument" shootings - but it's possible that people like Christopher Morrison would be less likely to do the straw purchasing.
But we'll just have to wait until November to see if he gets a chance to implement this plan...