Expert: Michael Troy - 4/20/2004

Question
i have been stopped many times in my life by people like police officers,security guards,etc.
i feel that this is unjust. i don't mean stopped while driving-i've never driven. i mean stopped while walking in a public place for example. and i think they should have no right stop me. i do not do anything wrong when they stop me. they do not arrest me though. i've never been arrested. and i have no record. for example,most recently,i was walking down the street of a small suburban town in the middle of the afternoon-just walking along,not even stepping onto private property. these two guys saw me and knew i didn't belong in that neighborhood. so they called the police and told me that i looked suspicious. they said someone else called-a crazy guy with guns in his house. but i know they lied. a few minutes later a cop came up to me and asked all kinds of stupid questions like 'what are you doing walking over there'. and he searched me. he found my house keys and said 'who's keys are these?' he looked at a piece of scrap paper i had and said 'what's this?' i had a hard boiled egg in my pocket and he said 'what are you doing with an egg?' what kind of questions are these? are those things i had on me illegal? he also said 'i could stand here all day picking your fucking brains out.so tell me what you were doing.' two more cops showed up and questioned me. one of them said 'your zipper is open. what the fuck are you doing?' what was he looking all the way down there for? was he gay? he shouldn't be looking in that area in the first place. in fact they could see my pants zipper because they opened my coat. and no one is supposed to open my coat except me. when my coat was closed no one could see my fly. and i didn't leave my pants open on purpose. don't you think cops should refrain from using profanity? what a bunch of hyprocrites. they
enforce the law but they curse at people. it's not like 'Cops' in which they're all polite, because those cops know they're on tv. the three cops asked me for Id. i'm glad i didn't have any. i gave them a false name and age and town of residence and things like that. i wasn't gonna tell them who i really am. i didn't do anything wrong. i should sue them. is that what i can do?what else can i do?

Answer
Hi Andrew,

I cannot provide specific legal advice here, except to say you should consult with an attorney if you feel your rights have been violated.  However, I can give you some background on the legal issues involved:

The sort of stops you describe are known as "Terry stops" by police officers.  The name comes from the 1968 Supreme Court case Terry v. Ohio which allowed police officers to detain people temporarily on reasonable suspicion of a crime.

Reasonable suspicion can be just about anything.  It can be the way a person is dressed, that he is looking around and acting suspiciously, that he is walking somewhere he should not be, etc.  It has to be more than a gut instinct, but police are usually pretty good about coming up with some excuse justifying virtually any stop.

The length of time one can be detained really depends on the reasonableness of the interrogation.  The officer has to be reasonably assured that his initial suspicion is wrong.  Some stops of more than a few minutes have been held to be unreasonable.  Others lasting hours have been held to be reasonable.  It really depends on the circumstances.

As for searching you, the officer is only justified in doing that if he has reasonable suspicion that you are armed.  But again, the level of what passes for "reasonable suspicion" is rather low.

This document spells out the rules in much greater detail.  However, it is rather large so it may take a while to load if you have dial-up.  It also requires Adobe Acrobat Reader:

http://www.fletc.gov/legal/ARCHIVES.pdf

It is pretty standard for police to ask questions about anything they find, even if innocent.  Sometimes dumber criminals will actually tell the police that they were going to do something illegal with it.  It is also normal procedure to scan your whole body visually for any sign of weapons or other illegal items.  As for cursing, it may be in violation of their codes of conduct, but it is not illegal.

I certainly understand your frustration, but realize that the police are holding all the cards in such stops.  Courts are usually willing to give them a great deal of discretion and believe their side of the story, right or wrong.  It is usually best to be respectful and polite regardless of how obnoxious the police act.  Giving them attitude is only more likely to give them reason to bother you more.

Also, it is ok to refuse to answer a question you consider inappropriate (again, I recommend declining politely) but it is not ok to lie.  That could get you slapped with an obstruction of justice charge.

If you can show that the stops are a form of deliberate harassment or a case of discrimination, you might have a case.  To inquire further, you might want to contact the ACLU, which specializes in such situations:

http://www.aclu.org

I hope this helps!
- Mike