Professional Standards Unit

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YOUR POLICE DEPARTMENT WANTS YOU TO KNOW

Police officers are required to offer you a business card and/or give you a business card, if you ask for one

Police officers are allowed to stop and talk to anyone in a public place but must have reasonable suspicion to DETAIN you. If you feel you are being unjustly detained, please cooperate, ask for a business card and ask for a supervisor to be respond.

If you choose to run when you see the police approach, this factor may be used to justify a detention because the courts have ruled that fleeing from police officers is inherently suspicious. The court’s concluding paragraph in People v. Souza 9 Cal.4th 224, *235 (Cal. 1994) states, “We conclude that even though a person's flight from approaching police officers may stem from an innocent desire to avoid police contact, flight from police is a proper consideration-and indeed can be a key factor-in determining whether in a particular case the police have sufficient cause to detain.”

If you are detained and the officer does not arrest you, they are required to explain to you the reason for the detention. If the officer’s explanation seems unreasonable, request to talk to a supervisor.

Officers can search you, your belongings, your car, or your home under the following circumstances:

With your permission;

If you are on probation or parole with a search condition;

With a search warrant;

Exigent circumstances with probable cause (weapons pat-down);

If you are arrested;

Other hybrid conditions that warrant search.

If you are 18 years of age or older, officers are only required to “read you your rights” if you are both, in custody and being interrogated. Officers do not have to “read your rights” during brief detentions such as traffic stops, encounters on the sidewalk or at crime scenes.