SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) — Massachusetts police can only frisk drivers during traffic stops if they have independent information that the driver is potentially armed, the state’s highest court ruled.

The Supreme Judicial Court ruled Wednesday in favor of a man who was stopped for a motor vehicle violation and frisked in 2017, The Boston Globe reported.

Manuel Torres-Pagan was stopped by Springfield police and handcuffed and frisked outside his car. Police found a legal knife and after searching his vehicle, allegedly found a firearm that led to illegal gun charges against him.

The court threw out the gun evidence against Torres-Pagan, ruling that officials did not have a constitutional reason for placing him in handcuffs and searching him.


“The only legitimate reason for an officer to subject a suspect to a pat frisk is to determine whether he or she has concealed weapons on his or her person,” Justice Kimberly Budd wrote for the court. “We therefore do not allow such an intrusion absent reasonable suspicion that the suspect is dangerous and has a weapon.”

Springfield Police Commissioner Cheryl Clapprood said in a statement that she was disappointed in the ruling and that “performing a pat frisk in a situation like this was essential to both officer safety and the safety of any civilians in the area.”