The Tennessee Supreme Court has ruled police must corroborate anonymous tips before officers stop and frisk someone.
The unanimous ruling came Thursday in a case involving a man convicted of being a felon in possession of a handgun and having a firearm while intoxicated. The court threw out the convictions because they were the result of an anonymous report made to police in May 2009. The opinion says law enforcement had no grounds to stop and frisk the man because there was no indication, beyond the anonymous report, that a crime had been committed. As a result, the court ruled evidence against Williamson should have been suppressed.