Multiple police officers contacting persons on the street, with a police vehicle’s emergency lights

• Consensual Encounters vs. Detentions
• A Show of Authority as a Detention
• Citizen Information and Reasonable Suspicion

The use of a patrol vehicle’s emergency lights and four officers surrounding a suspect’s vehicle constitutes a detention which, if not supported by at least a reasonable suspicion, is illegal.  Information from a private citizen, as reported to the police, that persons are engaged in “shady activity,” without further explanation, is insufficient to constitute the reasonable suspicion necessary to justify a detention.

On March 13th, 2019, at around 6:00 p.m. four San Diego patrol officers were handling an unspecified issue in the Encanto neighborhood of southeast San Diego when they were approached by a woman who drove up in her car and stopped to talk to them.  She told one of the officers (as recorded [without audio] on the officer’s body worn camera in a short 40 second conversation) that she lived nearby, and provided her address.  She complained to the officer that there were some black males in a parked black Mercedes on her street who were “acting shady.”  There was no explanation as to specifically what these individuals were doing that she considered to be “shady,” and the officer apparently didn’t think to ask her to elaborate.  All four officers, in two marked patrol vehicles, drove to that location and found the Mercedes where she said it would be, legally parked, and with three young black males sitting inside.  Two of the officers pulled up directly behind the Mercedes, activating their vehicle’s emergency lights as they did so.  The other two officers parked immediately behind the first patrol car without activating their lights.  All four officers approached the Mercedes at once, positioning themselves at each of the car’s four doors.  The ....