What must an officer demonstrate to justify a stop and frisk?

To justify a stop and frisk, an officer must demonstrate reasonable suspicion. This legal standard means that the officer has specific and articulable facts indicating that a person may be involved in criminal activity. Unlike mere intuition or a hunch, reasonable suspicion requires that the officer be able to point to observable facts or circumstances that would lead a reasonable person to suspect that criminal activity is afoot.

This standard protects individuals from arbitrary stops while still allowing law enforcement the necessary flexibility to address potential threats. For example, if an officer observes someone engaging in suspicious behavior, such as looking into car windows in a manner that suggests intent to commit theft, that behavior could meet the threshold for reasonable suspicion.

In contrast, relying solely on intuition or general requests without specific context does not meet the legal requirements for a stop and frisk, nor does following orders from a higher authority or solely obtaining information from the public suffice alone, as these factors must be tied to particularized suspicion based on the officer's own observations or credible information.