SJC hears dispute over pat-frisk and exit orders for missing juvenile

The Supreme Judicial Court heard argument in SJC-13779 over whether police may order a missing juvenile out of a vehicle and perform a pat frisk as part of the officer's community caretaking function.

“The Commonwealth argues that consistent with the officer's community caretaking function, the exit order and pat frisk in this case were reasonable, and the motion to suppress should have been denied,” Attorney Jennifer Cohen told the court for the Commonwealth.

The motion judge below found that officers had issued an exit order and subjected the juvenile to a pat frisk, but also concluded the officers were not acting under a community caretaking function and discounted some aspects of officer testimony. Counsel for the juvenile, Dennis Toomey, urged the court to apply stricter protections for juveniles and argued the armed-and-dangerous standard should govern searches of children absent statutory authority.

Why this matters: The case tests the limits of the community caretaking doctrine when police encounter a juvenile reported missing and whether statutory protections referenced in argument—referred to in the…