Draper v. United States
Citation: 358 U.S. 307 (1959)
Facts
A regular, paid FBI informant told an agent that Draper would arrive by train from Chicago on a specific date carrying heroin, and described Draper’s appearance and clothing in detail. The agent corroborated the tip by observing Draper’s arrival matching the detailed description perfectly, then arrested and searched him.
Issue
Did the agent have probable cause for the arrest and search, when the only basis was the informant’s tip and the agent’s corroboration of the tip’s descriptive details?
Holding
Yes. The informant’s prior reliability, combined with the agent’s independent corroboration of the tip’s specific details, provided probable cause. When the corroborated details proved accurate, it was reasonable to infer the informant’s tip about the drugs was also accurate.
Rule
Informant tips and probable cause: An informant’s tip, combined with independent corroboration of the tip’s details by police observation, can establish probable cause. The key is that corroboration of the non-criminal descriptive details of the tip supports an inference that the criminal information in the tip is also accurate.
Significance
- Established the corroboration approach to informant tips — became foundational for the Aguilar-Spinelli two-prong test (reliability of informant + basis of knowledge) and later Illinois v. Gates (totality of circumstances)
- Gates ultimately abandoned the strict two-prong Aguilar-Spinelli test in favor of totality of circumstances, but corroboration remains a critical factor
- The “Draper corroboration” principle: when an informant correctly predicts future behavior or accurately describes the suspect, it supports reliability of the criminal information