What distinguishes a Terry Stop from an arrest?

A Terry Stop is distinguished from an arrest primarily by the standard of suspicion required to justify the stop. In this case, Terry Stops are based on reasonable suspicion, which is a lower threshold than the probable cause needed for an arrest. Reasonable suspicion allows law enforcement officers to briefly detain an individual and ask questions or conduct a limited search for weapons if they believe the individual may be armed and dangerous.

This concept is rooted in the need to balance the interests of personal privacy and effective law enforcement. It allows officers to act on a hunch or specific indicators of criminal activity that are less definitive than what would be necessary to justify an arrest. This makes Terry Stops more flexible in situations where immediate action may be needed to prevent potential harm or a crime from escalating, without requiring the full legal burden of probable cause.

Other options relate to different aspects of the law enforcement process: probable cause for arrests, the duration of detention, or the circumstances under which searches are conducted, but they do not capture the essential defining characteristic of Terry Stops.