{"id":62482,"date":"2025-12-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=62482"},"modified":"2025-12-14T09:15:00","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T14:15:00","slug":"ca4-short-interaction-in-high-crime-in-daytime-wasnt-rs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=62482","title":{"rendered":"CA4: Short interaction in high crime area in daytime wasn&#8217;t RS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A short interaction in a high crime area in daytime wasn\u2019t reasonable suspicion, even when the passenger and driver didn\u2019t have the same story. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ca4.uscourts.gov\/opinions\/244502.P.pdf\">United States v. Hawkins<\/a>, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 32455 (4th Cir. Dec. 11, 2025):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Even though none of the factors above independently provide a basis for a reasonable, articulable suspicion that the occupants of the car were engaged in criminal activity, we still must consider all the factors together. Bowman, 884 F.3d at 218-19. &#8220;The court &#8216;must look at the cumulative information available to the officer&#8217; rather than hold a &#8216;stop unjustified based merely on a piecemeal refutation of each individual fact and inference.&#8217; &#8221; Id. at 218 (quoting Branch, 537 F.3d at 337). To find reasonable suspicion based on a combination of innocent factors, the Government must identify concrete reasons to suspect criminal activity. Bowman, 884 F.3d at 218-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even combining all the factors identified by the Government, we find no basis for reasonable suspicion that the individuals here were engaged in criminal activity. The drug task force officers saw a short interaction between Byrd, Williams, and Johnson in the apartment parking lot. But the drug task force officers did not see a handshake, drugs, or money. And this interaction took place in the middle of the afternoon, in broad daylight, and in a public place. The fact that the events occurred in an area known to the officers from prior investigations or that Johnson was convicted of a drug crime over ten years ago does not change the analysis of the interaction because the drug task force officers were not permitted to label Johnson as a drug dealer and view all the facts through that lens. Additionally, the minor and reconcilable inconsistencies between the statements taken during the traffic stop do not elevate the officers&#8217; hunch that drug activity took place to reasonable suspicion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A short interaction in a high crime area in daytime wasn\u2019t reasonable suspicion, even when the passenger and driver didn\u2019t have the same story. United States v. Hawkins, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 32455 (4th Cir. Dec. 11, 2025):<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reasonable-suspicion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62482"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62492,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62482\/revisions\/62492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}