Discuss, describe, compare, and contrast the legal requirements for voluntary encounters and Terry stops. Be sure to provide examples

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Law enforcement officers may attempt to engage a person in a voluntary conversation in a public place, such as on a sidewalk or in an airport or train station. The U.S. Supreme Court pointed out that: "The person approached ... need not answer any questions ... indeed, he may decline to listen to the questions at all and may go on his way. He may not be detained even momentarily without reasonable objective grounds for doing so; and his refusal to listen, or answer does not, without more furnish these grounds.".
Most persons will engage in voluntary conversations with law enforcement officers. If at some point they wish to discontinue the conversation, they may do so. The test used by American courts to determine whether such situations are voluntary is the free-to-leave test, which was defined by the U.S. Supreme Court... a person has been "seized" within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment only if in view of all the circumstances surrounding the incident, a reasonable person would have believed that he was not free to leave.
Reasonable suspicion is needed to authorize an investigative detention, or Terry stop. Reasonable suspicion is less than probable cause that would authorize an arrest. To make a temporary stop, the officer must be able to "point to specific and articulable facts which, taken together with rational inferences from those facts, reasonably warrant that intrusion." Reasonable suspicion is therefore more than a hunch, a gut reaction, or mere suspicion. Reasonable suspicion is that amount of evidence and facts that will cause a reasonable person to believe that the suspect has committed, is committing, or is about to commit a crime. The totality of the circumstances test is used to determine whether reasonable suspicion exists. That is, reasonable suspicion is determined by looking at the whole picture and all of the circumstances that existed. Student examples should focus on their understanding of the key differences between a Terry stop as opposed to a voluntary conversation.