Oregon Supreme Court: Cops Need Reasonable Suspicion to Ask About Weapons

Police now need to have reasonable suspicion of a threat before asking someone if they have a weapon, according to a ruling by the Oregon Supreme Court. The ruling came down on Thursday. It states that officer safety is no longer a valid reason to ask someone if they are in possession of a weapon.

Medford Police Sergeant Geoff Kirkpatrick said the ruling does not change how the departments’ officers operate.

“You always have to have some sort of articulable circumstance in order to ask people questions about criminal activity,” SergeantKirkpatrick said.’You can’t just stop people for no reason and base that on officer safety.”

The ruling applies to all subject stops, to include traffic, pedestrian, and bicyclist stops.