How to Flex Your Rights During Police Encounters

Reasonable suspicion is the legal standard by which a police officer has the right to briefly detain a suspect for investigatory purposes and frisk the outside of their clothing for weapons, but not drugs. While many factors contribute to a police officer's level of authority in a given situation, the reasonable suspicion standard requires facts or circumstances that would lead a reasonable person to believe that a suspect has, is, or will commit a crime.

While reasonable suspicion does not require hard evidence, it does require more than a hunch. A combination of particular facts, even if each is individually insignificant, can form the basis of reasonable suspicion. For example, police may have reasonable suspicion to detain someone who fits a description of a criminal suspect, a suspect who drops a suspicious object after seeing police, or a suspect in a high crime area who runs after seeing police.

Never try to run away from the police under any circumstances. If police see someone running away, especially in a "high-crime" neighborhood, that gives them all the reasonable suspicion they need to chase and stop him.

Sometimes people fleeing the police out of panic have even been shot at.  Don’t run.

The law may seem harsh on this point, but it's what the Supreme Court decided. If you see police approaching, stand your ground, and be prepared to assert your rights. But don’t run.

Clip from the DVD, BUSTED: The Citizen's Guide to Surviving Police Encounters

If they have reasonable suspicion to detain you, police may conduct a pat down (frisk) of the outside of your clothing to check for weapons, but only if they have a basis for suspecting you're armed.

If they feel a hard item that might be a weapon, police may reach into your pockets. Sometimes officers reach into suspects' pockets looking for drugs even if they don't feel a weapon. This is common, but it's illegal.

Police may ask you to reveal the contents of your pockets. Just like other search requests, you have the right to refuse.

(See also "How to Deal with Police on the Street")

Clip from the DVD, BUSTED: The Citizen's Guide to Surviving Police Encounters

Flex Your Rights has eagerly anticipated Barry Cooper's new video Never Get Busted Again: Vol.1 Traffic Stops, which finally arrived yesterday. After reviewing Cooper's DVD, we're disappointed to report that Never Get Busted badly misses the mark regarding consent searches.

We hope the following will not be interpreted as a rebuke of Cooper or his video, much of which we enjoyed. Still, we find it necessary to comment at length on his surprising advice.