The police stopped/detained me. Were they allowed to do that?

There are three types of law enforcement contacts with citizens, consensual encounters, temporary detentions and arrests.

A consensual encounter occurs when the law enforcement officer merely engages in conversation with a citizen without a show of authority. No facts must be established to justify such a consensual encounter. The citizen can end the encounter at any time and may choose to remain silent, choosing to simply ignore the law enforcement officer.

A temporary detention occurs when a law enforcement officer restrains a citizen's freedom of movement for a temporary period of time to conduct an investigation. To temporarily detain a citizen, the law enforcement officer must establish facts sufficient to prove that he or she has a reasonable suspicion to believe that the person had committed, was committing or was about to commit a crime. If the law enforcement officer determines, after conducting an investigation, That the person has not committed a crime, then the law enforcement officer must allow the person to go free. A citizen who has been temporarily detained has the right to remain silent and to not answer the law enforcement officer's questions.

The Florida Supreme Court has described the standard of reasonable suspicion as follows:

• . . . [T]he totality of the circumstances-the whole picture-must be taken into account. Based upon that whole picture the detaining officers must have a particularized and objective basis for suspecting the particular person stopped of criminal activity.
• . . . The analysis proceeds with various objective observations . . . and consideration of the modes or patterns of operation of certain kinds of lawbreakers. From these data, a trained officer draws inferences and makes deductions . . . that might well elude an untrained person.
• The process does not deal with hard certainties, but with probabilities. . . Finally, the evidence thus collected must be seen and weighed not in terms of library analysis by scholars, but as understood by those versed in the field of law enforcement.

To make an arrest, a law enforcement officer must establish facts sufficient to prove that he or she has probable cause to believe that a crime was committed and that the person being arrested and committed the crime. A law enforcement officer can establish probable cause to arrest a citizen if the totality of the circumstances supports reasonable grounds of suspicion that are sufficiently strong to warrant a reasonable and cautious person to believe that a crime was committed and that the person being arrested committed the crime.

If a law enforcement officer makes a temporary detention or an arrest without having sufficient facts to justify the temporary detention or arrest, then any evidence obtained as a result cannot be used to prosecute the person against whom the evidence is offered.

Orlando criminal defense lawyer David Faulkner is experienced at identifying whether or not law enforcement acted improperly in making a temporary detention or an arrest. Contact us today for a FREE CONSULTATION to discuss the particular facts in your case.