Police detain (handcuff) wrong guy.

[JoeMoma]

A guy is snooping around houses "looking suspicious". Is is photographed using a ring doorbell and a call is made to the police.

The police find a man walking nearby that doesn't match the picture/description and hold him for several minutes in the back of a police car.



My take on this is two fold.

1. Wrong person.. and the cops treated him like dirt. I hope this guy sues for $$$$.

2. Even if they had the guy in the picture/video from the ring doorbell. nothing that the person that made the police call said about that person was a crime. So even if it had been the correct person, that person should sue for $$$$. Being "strange" is not against the law.

 

[Mushroom]

So even if it had been the correct person, that person should sue for $$$$. Being "strange" is not against the law.

No, but sneaking around private property and looking in windows can indeed be criminal behavior.

Tell me, when was the list time you went into random houses and looked into the windows? If somebody did that to your house would you just shrug it off and think nothing of it?

 

[luiza]

Crap .
You have no idea how the guy reacted , what answers he gave initially etc

If the cops followed protocols and have everything on film , the guy can go take a running jump .

 

[JoeMoma]

No, but sneaking around private property and looking in windows can indeed be criminal behavior.

Tell me, when was the list time you went into random houses and looked into the windows? If somebody did that to your house would you just shrug it off and think nothing of it?

I watched the first part of the video again. There was no mention of him looking into windows, which isn't necessarily a crime even if he did. There would have to be certain conditions met to make looking into windows a crime. The police do it all the time. There was nothing the caller said in his call to the police that was a crime.

If the caller had his property posted with no trespassing signs, then it would be trespassing, but there was no mention of that. There was also no mention of the man looking into windows,

 

[Mushroom]

There was no mention of him looking into windows, which isn't necessarily a crime even if he did.

But it is suspicious activity and probable cause to make a legal stop.

Probable cause means that a reasonable person would believe that a crime was in the process of being committed, had been committed, or was going to be committed.

One does not need to wait for a crime to be committed if there is probably cause by suspicious activity.

 

[JoeMoma]

But it is suspicious activity and probable cause to make a legal stop.



One does not need to wait for a crime to be committed if there is probably cause by suspicious activity.

If that was "suspicious activity" then the cops get to handcuff practically anyone they want and stuff them in the back of a squad car any time they want. All the cops have on the guy is that he walked up to someone's door and perhaps knocked or rang the door bell. Perhaps the guy stood in the driveway and admired the home owner's truck for a few minutes. What the man did is no more suspicious than what cops do all the time when they approach someone's house. Also, since the guy had already left then the time to be suspicious was over. If some crime had been committed while he was there, then there should have been evidence of that crime.

Suspicious activity isn't illegal. And the cops can call anything they want suspicious.