The Supreme Court has defined three levels of contact with police and has required that certain tests are met before these types of contact are validly performed.
1. Consensual Contact occurs when a police officer and a citizen casually meet, for example passing one another on a public sidewalk. In this setting citizen is free to leave at anytime and owes no obligation to provide information to a police officer. This right is so strong, that case law holds that where someone runs from an officer who asks the citizen a question, this person has done nothing wrong and should the officer restrain the person’s movements without meeting the tests below, the conduct is probably illegal.
2. Detention occurs when an officer stops and questions a person or initiates a traffic stop. For this type of restraint to be permissable, the officer must be able to articulate facts, which when reasonably considered, seem to indicate that criminal activity is afoot. The officer can only detain a suspect long enough to determine that he was correct or that he was wrong.
3. Arrest usually occurs after a valid detention which seems to indicate that criminal activity is afoot. For example, severe swerving and the commission of traffic violations might indicate intoxication while driving. At the traffic stop, odor of alcohol and slurred speech will result in an arrest for DUI.
It should be noted that many arrrests for drug possession occur after an invalid stop or detention… these cases should result in dismissal via suppresion of illegally obtained evidence.
Tags: consensual, police, traffic stop