Even without any arrest, the officer could conceivably have conducted an external pat-down or Terry search of the subjects' outer garments to detect any weapons under the doctrine of officer safety (Schmalleger, 2008; Zalman, 2008).

However, even a Terry search would not have permitted to officer to further investigate or search any soft lumps or other contents of pockets not indicative of possession of a plausible weapon (Dershowitz, 2002). Furthermore, absent evidence that Terry and Kim were jointly engaged in criminal conduct, even a valid search of Terry pursuant to a valid arrest that yielded a small amount of marijuana in his pocket would not have justified a separate search of Kim (Schmalleger, 2008).

In this case, the search of both subjects was improper because it was conducted incident to an invalid arrest. Therefore, either Kim or Terry may challenge the introduction of any contraband retrieved from their personal possession....
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