What is the test for a search for weapons by a police officer?

The Constitution permits "a reasonable search for weapons for the protection of the police officer, where he [or she] has reason to believe that he [or she] is dealing with an armed and dangerous individual." (Terry v. Ohio (1968) 392 U.S. 1, 27.) A pat search is justified if "a reasonably prudent [officer] in the circumstances would be warranted in the belief that his [or her] safety or that of others was in danger." (Ibid.) "[T]he police officer must be able to point to specific and articulable facts which, taken together with rational inferences from those facts, reasonably warrant" the search. (Id. at p. 21.)

Defendant claims People v. Medina (2003) 110 Cal.App.4th 171 (Medina) is directly on point. In Medina, officers stopped the defendant's car at around midnight in a high-crime area. (Id. at pp. 174-175.) Officers admitted there was nothing specific about the defendant that would indicate he may be armed, but they decided to search him.

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