Appellant, Charles J. Austin [“Austin”], appeals his convictions for trafficking in cocaine
At the hearing on the motion to suppress, Rodney Smith [“Smith”], an officer with the Ocala Police Department, testified that, in December 1991, a “citizen source” complained to him that Austin had been bringing drugs in and selling drugs from his vehicle in Parkside Gardens in Ocala. Smith testified that he has known this complainant personally for seven years, that he is gainfully employed, lives in the Ocala community and, to Smith’s knowledge, has no criminal record. Smith testified that this source said he had known Austin for eight to ten years. The source desсribed Austin as a heavy set black male who wore his hair in a “jerry curl.” The source told Smith that Austin used to live in Ocala. The source then told Smith that he had personally witnessed Austin conducting these drug deals from about fifteen to thirty feet away.
Smith said that he next, heard from the source in late March 1992, when the source confirmed that the suspect was still selling drugs from his large, white car in Parkside
On that same day, while at the scene of another call involving a shooting, Smith again saw his source. The source told Smith that he had just witnessed Austin selling drugs over at Parkside, out of the Buick Roadmas-ter. After completing his work at the scene of the shoоting, Smith went to look for Austin in Parkside, but the ear was gone. Three weeks later, on April 18, 1992, Officer Bush called Smith and told him that the white Roadmaster had just been spotted on the highway. Officer Smith located the white Roadmaster, about three blocks from Park-side Gardens. Smith testified that he observed two occupants in the Roadmaster, a small black male and a large black, male, who aрpeared to “have some type of long curl.” Smith testified that he then pulled the vehicle over to do an investigative stop, “just as if [he] had a BOLO,” because of his information that the car was involved in criminal activity.
Once the vehicle was stopped, Smith observed that the driver had a stocky build and wore his hair in a “jerry curl.” The name on the driver’s license was Charles Austin, thus matching the nаme given for the suspect by Smith’s source. When Smith asked Austin if he could search his car, Austin refused, so Smith called for a drug dog. Upon arrival, approximately twenty to thirty minutes later, the dog “alerted” to Austin’s vehicle. The police then searched the vehiclе and found a handgun concealed under the front seat and several bags of cocaine in the car. Austin moved to suppress the evidence obtained in this search, but the lower court denied the motion. We affirm.
Under Florida law,
Rеasonable suspicion, like probable cause, is dependent upon both the content of information possessed by police and its degree of reliability. Both factors — quantity and quality — are considered in the “totality of the circumstancеs — the whole picture,” [citation omitted], that must be taken into account when evaluating whether there is reasonable susрicion. Thus, if a tip has a relatively low degree of reliability, more information will be required to establish the requisite quantum of suspicion than would be required if the tip were more reliable. [Emphasis in original.]
Trotman v. State,
Courts have held that information received from a confidential infоrmant does not fall under the same scrutiny as information received from an anonymous caller. State v. Hadden,
Although it is true that stale information may not be used to create the founded suspicion necessary to justify an investigatory stop, see Jain v. State,
The investigatory stop did not constitute an invalid search and seizure in viоlation of Austin’s constitutional rights.
AFFIRMED.
Notes
. § 893.135(1)(b), Fla.Stat. (1991).
. § 790.01(2), Fla.Stat. (1991).
.We find no fundamental error.
. An order granting or denying a motion to suppress is presumptively correct and a reviewing court should interpret the evidence and reasonable inferences and deductions drawn therefrom in a manner most favorable to sustaining the trial court’s ruling. Velez v. State,
. § 901.151, Fla.Stat. (1991).
