Legal Definitions - investigatory stops

An investigatory stop is a brief stop made by a police officer that is not intrusive. This type of stop is made when the officer has reasonable suspicion that a crime has been committed. The reasonable suspicion must be based on specific and articulable facts.

Example 1: A police officer sees a person walking down the street at night in a high-crime area. The person is looking around nervously and appears to be carrying something in their pocket. The officer stops the person to ask a few questions and to check for any weapons or illegal items. This is an investigatory stop.

Example 2: A police officer sees a car driving erratically on the highway. The officer pulls the car over to investigate. This is also an investigatory stop.

These examples illustrate the definition of an investigatory stop because in both cases, the police officer had reasonable suspicion that a crime had been committed. In the first example, the person was acting suspiciously in a high-crime area. In the second example, the car was driving erratically, which could be a sign of drunk driving or other criminal activity. In both cases, the officer made a brief stop to investigate further.