In what circumstances will a law enforcement officer order a search of a person who does not appear to be a threat?

In People v. Thurman (1989) 209 Cal.App.3d 817, the law enforcement officers entered a residence to be searched and found the defendant sitting silently and passively

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on a sofa. Even though the defendant did not appear to be a threat, the officers ordered a pat search of him and found drugs. (Id. at pp. 820-821.) In holding that the search was proper, the court stated, "We have no hesitation whatever in holding that [the officer] acted reasonably and prudently in conducting the pat search of appellant in the circumstances. . . . The officers whose duty required them to execute the warranted search were . . . well aware they were engaged in an undertaking fraught with the potential for sudden violence. They were necessarily cognizant of the very real threat that the occupants of the residence were within an environment where weapons are readily accessible and often hidden, nor could they discount the possibility that one or more of the individuals found inside were personally armed. [] [That defendant did not appear to present an immediate threat] does not in any measure diminish the potential for sudden armed violence that his presence within the residence suggested. To require an officer to await an overt act of hostility . . . before attempting to neutralize the threat of physical harm which accompanies an occupant's presence in a probable drug trafficking residential locale, would be utter folly." (Id. at p. 823; see People v. Samples (1996) 48 Cal.App.4th 1197 [affirming the legality of a patdown search of an individual driving a car in which two subjects of a warrant were passengers].)