Anyone trying to avoid the police whether walking away or running from them can be detained.

"Headlong flight—whenever it occurs—is the consummate act of evasion," Chief Justice William Rehnquist wrote in the court decision. He added that "allowing such detentions...accepts the risk that officers may stop innocent people."

Some people might have good reasons for dodging cops, opined Justice John Stevens. In a dissenting opinion, he stated that Blacks and other oppressed nationalities may believe that "contact with the police can itself be dangerous."

The decision, which gives police more leeway to frame up working people, was based on a 1968 Supreme Court ruling that permitted police to detain and search a person without any evidence that a crime has been committed.

The January 13 ruling has overturned an Illinois Supreme Court decision involving a 1995 incident when a Chicago man allegedly ran down an alley after he saw the cops approaching him.The Illinois court ruled that running from the cops is not enough to justify being stopped and searched by them.  
 
 
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