United States v. James D. Smith

Smith was convicted of one count of possession of burglary tools in violation of the Assimilated Crimes Act, 18 U.S.C. § 13 , and one count of.giving false information to a federal officer in violation of 36 C.F.R. § 2.10 . On appeal, he argues that certain evidence obtained subsequent to a Terry stop should have been suppressed because the stop was actually an arrest without probable cause or, alternatively, because the United States Park Police officers had no authority to make the Terry stop off federal property. We hold that the stop was not an arrest and the officers did have authority to make the Terry stop under 16 U.S.C. § la-6(a)(3). We therefore affirm the convictions.

I

The incidents leading to Smith’s arrest took place in and around Fort Mason. Fort Mason, which is located in San Francisco, California, is part of a national recreation area controlled by the United States Department of Interior. Law enforcement at Fort Mason is generally handled by the United States Park Police.

A park police officer at Fort Mason first observed Smith walking between some cars in a parking lot which had been the site of several recent automobile burglaries. Smith apparently noticed…