Does unprovoked flight plus a high-crime area equal reasonable suspicion? Explain your response

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Unprovoked flight from police officers in a high-crime area can amount to reasonable suspicion, according to the SCOTUS decision in Illinois v. Wardlow (2000). A person's presence in a high-crime area in and of itself is not enough to support reasonable suspicion. However, police can take into account the relevant characteristics of a location in determining whether circumstances warrant further investigation.

Likewise, courts have recognized that nervous, evasive behavior is relevant in determining whether reasonable suspicion exists. Illinois v. Wardlow declared that headlong flight is the ultimate act of evasion. The Court conceded that flight may not necessarily indicate that a person is engaged in wrongdoing, but it is certainly suggestive of such. Conduct justifying a stop can be ambiguous and possibly susceptible to an innocent explanation.

Illinois v. Wardlow
declared that Terry v. Ohio
(1968)
accepted a risk: allowing a stop based on reasonable suspicion will mean that police officers may sometimes stop innocent behavior. Likewise, not all persons arrested on probable cause turn out to have committed a crime. The Fourth Amendment does not require absolute certainty, only a sufficient level of justification for the governmental action required.