Reasonable Suspicion

Reasonable Suspicion  Reasonable suspicion must be based on a specific and articulable facts, not an “inchoate and unparticularized suspicion or hunch.” Reasonable suspicion requires “some minimal level of objective justification,” but less justification than probable cause. o Reasonable suspicion for a stop is determined by considering the totality of the circumstances to see if there is a particularized and objective basis for suspecting legal wrongdoing. Officers may draw on their own experience and specialized trainings to make inferences from and deductions about the cumulative information available to them (Arvizu).  Whether the standard is met is judged under the totality of the circumstances (Sokolow). o Unprovoked flight from police in high crime area established reasonable suspicion (Wardlow).  Law enforcement officers can stop and briefly detain a person for investigative purposes if they have an enforceable suspicion, supported by articulable facts, that criminal activity may be afoot, even if they lack probable cause. The reasonable suspicion is a less demanding standard than probable cause and does not require proof of wrongdoing by a preponderance of the evidence (Sokolow).  An officer may conduct a brief, investigatory stop when the officer has a reasonable, articulable suspicion that criminal activity is afoot. The determination of reasonable suspicion must be based on commonsense judgments and inferences about human behavior, and officers are not required to ignore the relevant characteristics of a location in determining whether the circumstances are sufficiently suspicious to warrant further investigation (Wardlow).  Whether suspicion is based on informant’s tip, tip must have indicia of reliability sufficient to make officer’s suspicion reasonable (Alabama v. White; Florida v. J.L.), but officers need not personally witness evidence of criminal activity (Navarette v. California). o An anonymous tip, as corroborated by independent police work, can exhibit sufficient indicia of reliability to provide the reasonable suspicion needed to make an investigatory stop (less demanding standard than probable cause) (Alabama v. White). o An anonymous tip that a person is carrying a gun is not sufficient to justify a police officer’s stop and frisk of that person, unless the tip is suitably corroborated and exhibits sufficient indicia of reliability to provide reasonable suspicion (Florida v. J.L.).  Tip: To determine whether some set of facts provides reasonable suspicion, compare the facts of the case we have studied where the Court found there was, or was not, reasonable suspicion.