Robert Justin Lipkin, a law professor at Widener University, said the constitutionality of the jump-out squads comes down to whether police are conducting advance surveillance or whether they’re just saying that and descending on corners at random.

“Are they really gathering intelligence and differentiating between the good citizen coming home from getting a quart of milk, or is it just a charade and they’re patting down anyone they want?” he said. “If they’re doing good police work, the practice will be upheld. But to just go to an open-air drug market en masse and check out everyone who’s there is not something they’re entitled to do.”

P.S. File it under Fourth Amendment, not First.