AGUILAR–SPINELLI TEST

Aguilar–Spinelli test (ah-gee-lahr  spi-nel-ee  orag-w<<schwa>>-lahr).Criminal  procedure.

standard  for  de-termining  whether  hearsay  (such  as  an  informant’s tip)  is sufficiently  reliable  to

establish  probable cause for an arrest or search warrant. • Under this two-pronged test — which

has been replaced by a broader, totali-ty-of-the-circumstances approach — the reliability of both

the information and the informant must be assessed independently. Aguilar v. Texas, 378 U.S. 108,

84  S.Ct.  1509  (1964);  Spinelli  v.  United  States,  393  U.S.  410,  89  S.Ct.  584  (1969).  Cf.

TOTALITY-OF-THE-CIRCUMSTANCES  TEST.  [Cases:  Criminal  Law    211(3);  Searches  and

Seizures    118.C.J.S. Criminal Law §§ 330, 337; Searches and Seizures §§ 160–165, 167.] [Blacks Law 8th]