Reasonable Suspicion to Detain: It’s the Sum of the Parts, Not the Individual Circumstances

Case Alert
By Robert Phillips 
Deputy District Attorney (ret.) 

Legal Concepts

• Reasonable suspicion sufficient to detain
• The totality of the circumstances
• Flight as it relates to a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity

Rule: The driver of a motor vehicle suddenly attempting to drive away at 2 o’clock in the morning upon the approach of a marked police vehicle, after two occupants of the car had already fled and left the back door open, and the driver then not stopping to close the door, constitutes a reasonable suspicion sufficient to justify the officer’s belief that the driver was involved in criminal activity.

Summary: A police officer received a call concerning a suspicious vehicle in an apartment complex parking lot at about 2 a.m. When the officer arrived, two subjects fled from a vehicle, leaving the back door open. A third subject, later determined to be a juvenile referred to as R.W., attempted to drive away while his vehicle’s back door remained open. The court held that under these circumstances, the officer clearly had a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity under the Fourth Amendment, sufficient to detain R.W. That’s because already being on alert from the early-morning dispatch to check a suspicious vehicle, ....