Opinion
October 2, 1986
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Queens County (Savarese, J.).
Judgment affirmed.
The police responded to a radio run indicating a black male had a gun at a specified location in a particular model and color vehicle with a specific license plate number. Upon arriving at the scene, the officers observed the defendant and another man seated in a vehicle that matched that description. Approaching with their guns drawn, the police asked the men to exit the vehicle. As the defendant emerged from the vehicle, one of the officers observed a bulky object in his vest pocket. Fearing for his safety, the officer conducted a pat-down frisk, but was unable to determine whether or not the object was a weapon. At that point he reached in and removed the object from the defendant's pocket, which turned out to be a open change purse filled beyond capacity with 85 tinfoil packets of cocaine. Under the circumstances, the actions of the police officer, who upon responding to a report of a man with a gun, was unable to determine from an external frisk whether the object in the pocket of the defendant was a weapon, did not constitute an unreasonable intrusion into the defendant's privacy (see, People v De Bour, 40 N.Y.2d 210). Bracken, J.P., Brown, Niehoff and Eiber, JJ., concur.