Court Rules on Detentions vs. Consensual Encounters Amid Implicit Bias Concerns

Detaining a subject sitting in his car without a reasonable suspicion to believe he is involved in criminal activity is illegal. Surrounding and flash-lighting that person, cutting off any reasonable route to simply walk away, is a detention.  

• Consensual encounters vs. detentions 
• Hunch vs. reasonable suspicion 
• Implicit biases (See note) 

A Fourth Amendment “seizure” of a person by a police officer occurs if, in view of the surrounding circumstances, a reasonable person would not believe that he or she is free to leave. A detention requires at the very least a reasonable suspicion to believe the person is involved in criminal activity

Shortly before midnight on July 12, 2021, two Los Angeles Police Department patrol officers, while driving down 109th Street between Avalon and San Pedro, observed a lone Black male sitting in a parked expensive looking Range Rover or Land Rover. Both officers immediately noticed the occupant, later determined to be the defendant, Albert Jackson, was sitting “kind of awkwardly” — “kind of halfway in, halfway out of the driver’s seat” — and was wearing a “big bulky jacket.” The officers found this to be unusual in that they thought it was warm (later testimony showed it was in the mid to low 60s) and humid out. One of ....