Can Police Use Drugs You Threw Down in Florida? (2026)

In a thrown-drugs case, the suppression hearing usually comes down to a few seconds of video: did the person stop before the object left his hand, or after? I’m Rocky Brancato, and before founding The Brancato Law Firm, P.A., a Tampa criminal defense firm, I taught officers the legal limits of arrest authority as a police academy instructor. I have since tried more than 150 jury trials to verdict. Our attorneys build every abandonment challenge around that sequence, matching the officer’s report against body camera footage frame by frame.

What Does “Abandonment” Mean When Police Find Drugs You Threw?

Abandonment means you gave up your privacy interest in an item by throwing it, dropping it, or leaving it behind, so police can pick it up and use it without a warrant. Florida courts apply one critical limit: the abandonment must be voluntary. An item you discard because police illegally seized you is treated as the product of that illegal seizure, and it can be suppressed.

The Florida Supreme Court drew this line in Hollinger v. State, 620 So. 2d 1242 (Fla. 1993). The court explained that a person who flees from a show of police authority has not been seized, while a person who stays in place and submits has been seized. If a person submits to an illegal stop and then drops contraband, the evidence must be suppressed. The court added that police do not have to order a person to drop anything for the abandonment to be involuntary.

This matters most in drug possession cases, which our Tampa drug crimes attorney page covers in more detail, because a tossed baggie or pill bottle is often the only evidence the State has.

What Is the Difference Between “Drop Then Stop” and “Stop Then Drop”?

“Drop then stop” means you got rid of the item before you were seized, so it is voluntarily abandoned and admissible. “Stop then drop” means you had already submitted to police authority when you got rid of it, so the abandonment is involuntary if the stop was illegal. The legality of the officer’s order does not matter in a “drop then stop” case.

The U.S. Supreme Court set the federal rule in California v. Hodari D., 499 U.S. 621 (1991). Hodari ran when he saw officers, and he tossed a rock of crack cocaine just before an officer tackled him. The State conceded the officer had no reasonable suspicion to stop him. The Court still held the cocaine admissible because a person is seized only by physical force or by submitting to a show of authority, and Hodari had done neither when he threw it.

Florida’s Fourth District applied that rule in Johnson v. State, 640 So. 2d 136 (Fla. 4th DCA 1994). An officer told Johnson to stop. Johnson kept walking briskly, stepped onto a porch, threw something down, and only then turned toward the officer and said, “What, officer?” The State conceded the officers had no lawful reason to stop him. The court called it a very close case, but it upheld the trial judge’s finding that the drop came before the stop, so the evidence came in.

When Are You “Seized” by Police in Florida?

You are seized when an officer physically restrains you or when you submit to an officer’s show of authority, such as an order to stop. Submission does not require handcuffs or even a spoken command. Courts look at what you actually did in the seconds before the item left your hand.

Hollinger shows how little it can take. Masked Orange County deputies in SWAT-style gear pulled into a parking lot during a drug sweep, announced “Orange County Sheriff’s Office,” and approached a group. Hollinger put his hand behind his back and dropped a tissue holding six rocks of cocaine. No deputy told him to freeze. The trial judge found that a reasonable person would have felt he was not to move, and the Florida Supreme Court upheld the suppression.

In Lang v. State, 671 So. 2d 292 (Fla. 5th DCA 1996), a deputy stopped Lang, who was walking at night with a flashlight in a high-crime area, without any reasonable basis. The deputy told Lang to step back to the patrol car, and Lang began to comply. When the deputy told him to take his hand out of his pocket, Lang threw a pill bottle behind him. The Fifth District held that Lang had submitted by starting to comply, so the abandonment was involuntary, and it reversed his conviction.

Compare State v. Canada, 715 So. 2d 1164 (Fla. 5th DCA 1998). Officers asked Canada what was in his hand. Instead of showing them, he turned, threw a film container about 25 feet over a chain-link fence, and tried to run. Because Canada never yielded, the Fifth District held the abandonment voluntary and reversed the trial court’s suppression order.

When our attorneys evaluate a thrown-evidence case, we ask five questions:

1. Did an officer give an order or make a show of authority, such as lights, commands, or blocking your path?
2. Did you stop, turn toward the officer, raise your hands, or begin following an instruction?
3. Did the item leave your hand before or after that act of compliance?
4. Did you try to run after throwing it?
5. What does the video show, compared with what the arrest report says?

What Did the Fifth District Decide in Jeffries v. State (2026)?

The Fifth District held that a man who stopped and turned toward an officer before throwing a pill bottle had already submitted, so the abandonment was involuntary. The case is Jeffries v. State, No. 5D2024-1721 (Fla. 5th DCA July 31, 2026), and it is the newest Florida appellate decision applying the stop-then-drop rule.

Larry Sapp, an off-duty Clay County School District police officer, was home in Putnam County, outside his jurisdiction, when his daughter told him someone had tried to break into his patrol car. Sapp saw Jeffries leaving his property, identified himself as law enforcement, and ordered him to stop. Jeffries kept walking. Sapp later found him near an apartment complex and again ordered him to stop. This time Jeffries stopped and turned toward Sapp. As Sapp moved in to arrest him, Jeffries made a throwing motion. A responding officer found a pill bottle containing narcotics where the object landed, and a search of Jeffries turned up a stun gun.

The court applied Hollinger, Hodari D., and Johnson. It found that Jeffries had already complied with the second order to stop when he threw the bottle, which made the facts line up with Lang rather than Canada. The court noted that Jeffries had walked away the first time but stopped the second time, and the second stop is what mattered. Because the abandonment was involuntary, the pill bottle could not justify the search that found the stun gun as a lawful search incident to arrest.

The court reversed the order denying suppression, vacated Jeffries’s conviction for possession of an electric weapon or device by a convicted felon under section 790.23, Florida Statutes, and remanded. At the hearing, defense counsel had limited the motion to suppress to the stun gun count, so the opinion does not decide what happens to the drug possession counts.

Jeffries also held that the arrest itself was unlawful. An officer outside his jurisdiction has only a private citizen’s arrest powers, which reach only a felony or a breach of the peace committed in the citizen’s presence, and the court found Sapp saw neither. We cover that part of the case in our posts on disorderly conduct and breach of the peace and on whether an off-duty police officer can arrest you in Florida.

The evergreen lesson from Jeffries is simple. Stopping and turning toward an officer is submission, and anything thrown after that moment is suppressible if the stop or arrest was illegal.

Why Does the Legality of the Stop Decide Everything?

The legality of the stop decides the case because a stop-then-drop argument wins only when the seizure was illegal. If the officer had reasonable suspicion to detain you, the evidence comes in even though you had submitted before you threw it. Every abandonment motion therefore has two parts: when you were seized, and whether the officer had a lawful basis to seize you at that moment.

Under the Florida Stop and Frisk Law, section 901.151, Florida Statutes, an officer may temporarily detain a person only when the circumstances reasonably indicate the person has committed, is committing, or is about to commit a crime. The statute also bars evidence from a search under that section unless the search complied with the statute. Our post on whether police can stop and frisk you in Florida walks through what counts as reasonable suspicion.

A recent First District case shows why the defense must attack the stop directly. In Smith v. State, No. 1D2025-0497 (Fla. 1st DCA Sept. 23, 2026), Smith tried to keep officers from seeing a cellophane baggie in his hand, including by stomping on it after he dropped it, and the court counted those efforts among the facts supporting probable cause to search his vehicle. Smith also challenged his initial detention, but his brief argued only probable cause and never addressed reasonable suspicion, so the court held he had not shown the detention was unlawful and affirmed. The Second District, which hears appeals from Tampa Bay, treats cannabis odor differently than the First District did in Smith, as we explain in our post on whether police can search your car for smelling weed in Florida.

Can Throwing Drugs Add a Tampering With Evidence Charge?

Yes, throwing drugs can lead to a tampering charge, but tossing them in plain view does not automatically qualify. Under section 918.13, Florida Statutes, the State must prove you knew an investigation was pending or about to begin and that you altered, destroyed, concealed, or removed an item with the purpose of impairing its availability. Tampering is a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison.

In State v. Jennings, 666 So. 2d 131 (Fla. 1995), Jennings swallowed suspected cocaine rocks the moment an officer shouted “police!” The Florida Supreme Court held that swallowing an item can be tampering, and that throwing evidence away in an officer’s presence may also be tampering depending on the circumstances.

The Second District, whose decisions bind Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Pasco courts, applied that rule in E.I. v. State, 25 So. 3d 625 (Fla. 2d DCA 2009). During a traffic stop in Plant City, a passenger tossed a package of methamphetamine out the truck window at the driver’s direction, and it landed in plain view on a gas station parking lot. The court held this was abandonment, not attempted tampering, because nothing showed he intended to alter, destroy, or conceal the package, and it ordered him discharged. The court pointed to swallowing drugs or dropping them into a drainage outlet as the kind of acts aimed at destroying evidence.

Abandonment doctrine works at two stages of the same case. At the suppression hearing, the question is whether the toss was voluntary. At trial on a tampering count, the question is whether the toss was a plain abandonment or an act meant to destroy or hide the evidence. Losing the first argument does not end the second.

Is Running From Police a Separate Crime in Florida?

Running from police can be charged as resisting an officer without violence, a first-degree misdemeanor under section 843.02, Florida Statutes, punishable by up to one year in jail. The charge requires that the officer was lawfully executing a legal duty when you ran.

In C.E.L. v. State, 24 So. 3d 1181 (Fla. 2009), a juvenile ran when he saw deputies at an apartment complex known for drug activity, then kept running after they ordered him to stop. The Florida Supreme Court held that his unprovoked flight in a high-crime area gave the deputies reasonable suspicion, so his continued flight in defiance of their order was resisting without violence. The court also held that the person must know the officer intends to detain him, and the officer must be justified in making the stop when the resistance occurs.

Running rarely helps. Anything you throw while running is admissible under Hodari D., and if the officer had a lawful basis to stop you, the flight adds a separate charge. In Tampa Bay arrest paperwork, our attorneys routinely see a resisting count stacked on top of the charge that started the encounter, and in our Hillsborough County practice it is often the most winnable charge on the arrest affidavit. Our post on resisting an officer without violence in Florida explains those defenses.

What Charges Can Follow When Police Recover Thrown Evidence?

A thrown item usually produces a possession charge, and the throw itself can add tampering or resisting counts. Drug charges are a steady share of local arrests: in 2020, law enforcement in Hillsborough County reported 3,028 drug arrests out of 32,519 total arrests, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s 2020 county arrest data, the last year FDLE published county arrest totals in that format. That is about one of every eleven arrests in the county.

How Do Our Attorneys Challenge Thrown Evidence?

Our attorneys challenge thrown evidence by rebuilding the encounter second by second and filing a motion to suppress when the timeline shows a stop-then-drop on an illegal stop. The motion asks the judge to exclude the item and anything found because of it, as happened with the stun gun in Jeffries.

1. Pin down the sequence. We compare body camera and dash camera footage, dispatch audio, and the arrest report to fix the exact moment of the order, the moment of compliance, and the moment of the throw.
2. Test the basis for the stop. We identify what the officer knew before giving the order and whether it amounted to reasonable suspicion under section 901.151.
3. Challenge the officer’s account. Legal scholars have flagged “dropsy” testimony for decades. Law professor Christopher Slobogin, in Testilying: Police Perjury and What to Do About It, 67 U. Colo. L. Rev. 1037 (1996), describes data showing that police testimony that arrestees dropped drugs as officers approached increased after Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643 (1961), the Supreme Court decision that applied the exclusionary rule to state police. Video now lets us test that kind of claim.
4. Follow the fruit. If the throw was involuntary, we move to suppress everything that flowed from it, including later searches of your person or car.
5. Defend the add-on counts. We attack tampering and resisting charges on their own elements, even if the suppression motion fails.

Our post on motions to suppress evidence in Tampa explains how these hearings work.

What Should You Do After an Arrest Involving Thrown Drugs?

Talk to a defense attorney before you talk to anyone else about the case, and do it quickly, because the evidence that proves the sequence can disappear. Private surveillance systems often record over old footage, and witnesses forget details.

• Do not explain to police, cellmates, or friends why you threw something. Those statements can be used against you.
• Write down, privately, the order of events: when the officer spoke, when you stopped, and when the item left your hand.
• Note any businesses, homes, or vehicles nearby that may have cameras, and anyone who saw the encounter.
• Do not post about the arrest on social media.
• If officers released you and said the item would be tested, charges can still be filed later. Our representation before charges are filed can begin now.

Frequently Asked Questions About Thrown Evidence in Florida

Can police use drugs I threw while running away from them?

Usually yes, because a person who is running has not been seized, so anything thrown during the chase is treated as voluntarily abandoned under Hodari D. and Canada. The Brancato Law Firm still examines whether you actually stopped, even briefly, before the throw, since that moment can change the outcome. Our stop and frisk guide explains when police can lawfully chase and detain you.

Is it tampering with evidence to throw drugs on the ground in front of an officer?

Not automatically, because Florida requires proof that you intended to destroy, conceal, or remove the item, and a toss in plain view that police easily recover can be plain abandonment under E.I. Our attorneys at The Brancato Law Firm attack the intent element directly and use the recovery location and video to show nothing was hidden. Swallowing drugs or dropping them down a drain is treated more seriously under section 918.13.

Can thrown drug charges be dropped in Florida?

Yes, thrown drug charges can be dropped, most often when a judge suppresses the item and the State has no other evidence to prove possession. The Brancato Law Firm also evaluates diversion options, and Hillsborough County offers programs such as Pretrial Intervention and Drug Court that can result in dismissal. See our page on drug possession defense in Tampa for more.

What if I threw a gun when police approached me in Florida?

The same abandonment rules apply to a gun as to drugs, so a gun thrown before you were seized is admissible, while a gun thrown after you submitted to an illegal stop can be suppressed. For clients with a prior felony, The Brancato Law Firm treats the suppression issue as the center of the defense, because possession by a convicted felon under section 790.23 is a second-degree felony. Our Tampa gun crimes lawyer page explains those charges.

What if police let me go after I threw something and said they would test it?

You can still be charged later, because the State can file charges after lab results come back. The Brancato Law Firm can contact the prosecutor before a decision is made and preserve video while it still exists. Learn more about our pre-file advocacy work.

Does it matter if the officer was off duty or outside his jurisdiction?

Yes, because an officer outside his jurisdiction generally has only a private citizen’s arrest powers, and Jeffries shows an arrest outside those limits is unlawful. Our attorneys at The Brancato Law Firm check where the officer was, whether he was on duty, and what he personally saw before the arrest. Read more in our post on whether an off-duty police officer can arrest you in Florida.

What if the police report says I dropped the drugs before I stopped?

The report is not the final word, because the judge decides the sequence at the suppression hearing from all the evidence, including video and your testimony. The Brancato Law Firm lines up the report against the footage and dispatch timeline to find gaps. Johnson shows how close these calls can be.

Thrown Evidence Cases Are Won on the Timeline

The first thing our attorneys do in a thrown-evidence case is lock down the timeline: the video, the dispatch audio, and the officer’s report, compared second by second before footage is lost or memories fade. The Brancato Law Firm, P.A. was founded by Tampa Criminal Defense Attorney Rocky Brancato, and our attorneys defend drug, gun, and resisting charges in Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Pasco Counties. Call (813) 727-7159 now, while the evidence that shows when you stopped still exists. For more about our defense strategies, visit our Drug Crimes page.

The Brancato Law Firm, P.A.
620 E. Twiggs Street, Suite 205, Tampa, FL 33602
(813) 727-7159
Serving Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Pasco Counties

The Brancato Law Firm, P.A. is a Tampa-based criminal defense practice. We are not affiliated with any other Brancato-named law firms.