Also known as: specific and articulable facts · articulable facts · reasonable suspicion facts
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
Concrete observations and circumstances that together supply an objective basis for an officer to form reasonable suspicion of criminal activity or danger to safety. The facts must be particularized to the person or place at issue rather than general or speculative. They permit limited intrusions such as an investigative stop or protective sweep when viewed under the totality of the circumstances.
Officers arrested Stella Shapiro inside her apartment for assault. As they led her out, they heard movement in a back bedroom and saw a shadow cross the hallway. They conducted a quick sweep of that room and found an armed associate hiding behind the door. The sweep was upheld because the officers' observations supplied specific articulable facts indicating another person who posed a danger.
Officer Lopez saw Sydney Santos standing in a known drug area after dark. Santos repeatedly glanced over his shoulder, adjusted a bulge at his waist, and approached passing cars for brief exchanges. Lopez stopped and frisked Santos. The stop was valid because the officer's direct observations of Santos's conduct supplied specific articulable facts supporting reasonable suspicion of drug activity and possible armament.
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Agents watched Scott Summers arrive on a short flight carrying only a small bag. Summers appeared nervous, avoided eye contact with officers, and repeatedly checked the same bag. Agents detained the bag briefly for a dog sniff. The detention rested on specific articulable facts that the bag likely contained contraband.
An officer stopped Simone Sanders on a public sidewalk after she refused to identify herself during a lawful investigation of recent burglaries. Sanders had been seen near the crime scene at odd hours and matched a description. The stop was permissible because the officer possessed specific articulable facts tying Sanders to the ongoing inquiry.
A trooper stopped Steven Silva for a traffic violation late at night. Silva appeared agitated and kept reaching toward the passenger seat where a jacket lay. The trooper conducted a limited search of the passenger compartment. The search was justified by specific articulable facts indicating a weapon might be accessible.
Officers took Sylvia Santos to the station for questioning after observing her near a robbery scene with blood on her sleeve and inconsistent statements. They lacked probable cause for arrest. The prolonged detention was unlawful because the officers had only specific articulable facts supporting a brief Terry stop, not the higher showing needed for custodial seizure.
Specific articulable facts are concrete observations that, taken together under the totality of the circumstances, give an officer an objective basis to suspect criminal activity or danger. A hunch lacks any particularized facts and rests only on intuition or speculation.
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Yes. Conduct that is individually consistent with lawful activity can still support reasonable suspicion when the combination of facts, viewed through an officer's training and experience, points to possible criminality.
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When officers possess a reasonable belief, grounded in specific and articulable facts, that an area beyond the arrestee's immediate control harbors a person posing danger, they may conduct a limited sweep of spaces where a person could hide.
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No. Reliable information from a known eyewitness or informant can supply the required facts, provided the information is sufficiently particularized and credible under the totality of the circumstances.
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…387 U. S. 523, 534-535, 536-537 (1967). And in justifying the particular intrusion the police officer must be able to point to specific and articulable facts which, taken together with rational inferences from those facts, reasonably warrant that intrusion. The scheme of the Fourth Amendment becomes meaningful only when it is assured that at…