Adams v. Williams - Impact

In a limited sense, the Court's decision was significant in granting police additional powers to stop and frisk suspects. More importantly, however, the Adams decision was the first step in a series of decisions in which the Court has continued to expand the situations in which police officers may conduct searches without first obtaining a search warrant. In the years since the Adams decision, the Court has extended Terry to allow police to stop a person based only on reasonable suspicion in order to fingerprint the person, to determine whether that person is wanted for another crime, or to detain the person for a reasonable time while further investigation is conducted. Thus, Adams signaled a drastic step in the interpretation of the Fourth Amendment.