If a police officer drives past a driver or passenger who looks really suspicious, how does the officer determine suspicion visually and decide to pull them over?
by 
Egao No Genki
ANSWERS: 9
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skin color, clothing style, choice of music, condition of the car.. amongst many others
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Training and experiences. Everyone naturally can tell something is up based off the circumstances, body language, etc. The training and past experiences lead to a reasonable suspicion. A good example is having a few young teens hanging out in front of a liquor store. They are not old enough and don’t go inside, but are approaching legal age customers. What do you think they are trying?
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First, an officer cannot pull you over because you look suspicious. They must have an articulable suspicion that a crime has been, or is about to be committed. However, a cop can pull you over pretextually if he has some other valid reason. For example, in California you must have a front license plate. If you don't have one, most cops won't bother to cite you. But if a cop thinks you are suspicious, but he does not have an articulable suspicion that a crime has been committed, he can pull you over for no front license plate even though he has no intention of citing you for it. What makes a person suspicious is usually related to experience. A woman standing on a random street corner at 9pm may not be suspicious to most, but to a cop this could be suspicious depending on the location, what the person is wearing, how she is conducting herself.
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well legally he can't pull you over for just looking suspicious but that's why there's certain little bs loopholes for the law to pull someone over such as you swerved or went left of center or drove under the speed limit. I'm sure there's all kinds of b.s. things cops have to use as excuses to pull you over. I was just recently pulled over late at night because the officer said I Was driving slow (I had my cruise control set to 35 in a 35 and he also said my left brake light was staying on when I released the brake. He ran my tags and id and made me wait forever and then came back to the car, asked me my name again, asked if my middle name was my middle name or my last name and then left again, I waited and then he returned and gave me a repair citation. I took the car to the dealership to get it checked out and nothing is wrong with my brake light. I think it was a bogus excuse to just pull me over because it was late and I was the only one on the road and he just wanted to see if he could nail me for anything else. When he couldn't he gave me a crappy little repair order.
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Stereotypes they develop based off of "experience" or training. They do need a very minor reason to pull you over, like not using your turn signal or something....
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When I was a reserve police officer in England,I always became suspicious of a driver or passenger who didnt give me a glance as we passed him/her by.Other regular officers were of the same opinion,and pulled the driver over.On the other hand those who did look at the police car we always thought that they had nothing to hide.So maybe its good practice to look at the officer as he drives past and give him a friendly hand signal!.Why not try it and see?
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It's called the "totality of circumstances." Based on the officer's training and experience. He just needs to justify in court what was suspicious. And yes, sometimes, it is just skin color. Used to pull over white boys down in the ghetto. Just didn't belong there. They were either lost or up to no good. Sucks, but that's the reality of life.
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I got pulled over on suspicion because I kept driving up and down a street. The houses were unmarked and I was looking for an address and couldn't figure out which one belonged to my friend. The officer was very kind and located the proper house for me.
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Hmm! Pot luck decision?
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