re: #559 Obdicut

….

Where do you see mention of him being held for an hour?

It’s in the video portion

And no, police can question pretty much anyone they want. They’re not allowed to detain them without cause. In this case, they do appear to have screwed up in that if the guy was drinking, an arrest would have been more appropriate than driving him home.

But just going up and asking questions is not something cops need a probable cause for in a public space.

No, they can’t. They can ask you anything they want but if you aren’t free to walk away without answering then it’s a Terry stop. In order to detain someone and ask them questions they have to have a reasonable suspicion that a crime is taking (or about to take) place. There has been a minor uproar in NYC over their “Stop and Frisk” practices in part because most of them are illegal.

nyclu.org

When you get pulled over the officer is required to limit the investigation to the reason for the stop unless they come up with a reasonable suspicion that something else is going on. If you get pulled over for speeding and the officer asks what you have in your trunk for no other reason than he wants to know, he’s violating your rights just by asking the question.