Demario Montrell Rodgers v. United States

In Adams v. Williams, 407 U.S. 143 (1972), this Court held that a face-to-face tip carried enough indicia of reliability to justify an investigative stop where the informant was known to the officer, had given him information before, described a specific object in a specific place, and could have been arrested for a false complaint. The Court did not decide whether that reasoning, which addresses whether an informant is telling the truth, also relieves the government of showing that she knows anything. The question presented is whether the manner in which an accusation is delivered may be presumed to establish an informant’s reliability, so that an officer may credit an in-person accusation, and count it toward reasonable suspicion, without learning the accuser’s identity, without asking her anything, and without any account of what she observed or how she knows what she alleges?