searching of a minor

[faithmarie]

On Halloween night our village cops decided to pat the pockets of everyteen on the streets. My daughter who was with 2 of her friends, who are male, was also patted. The probable cause was that kids were throwing eggs. She had jeans on that would not hold eggs and if they were in her pocket, they would have seen the eggs. She had a jacket on that would have concealed eggs, but those pockets were not checked. My question is do the cops have the right to pat her when she has done nothing wrong, and do male cops have the right to pat a female without another female there?
I also found out later, that a girl had an egg thrown through the sunroof of her car, reported it to the police and told them who had done it, and nothing was done.
Any advice?

 

[lawrat]

I am a law school graduate. What I offer is mere information, not to be construed as forming an attorney client relationship.

Any police officer can pat anyone, as long as the pat is purely extrinsic and not touching that would violate normal procedures.

I.e. police officers can do a Terry stop and frisk which means they can pat anyone down for weapons, or in this case, eggs.

If they didn't search her jacket, that was their stupidity. But no violation here.