Being suspicious of someone is not necessarily bad for police officers, as long as you have a reason to be suspicious. For example, have you ever seen a person you've never seen before walking in your neighborhood? The police patrol the streets making sure nothing suspicious happens. There have been cases where the police have been accused of stopping people for no reason. Some say they were racially profiled. Whatever the case, the police must have reasonable suspicion to stop someone. The term reasonable suspicion is a lower standard than probable cause. It is a general belief that a crime is occurring or has occurred. Reasonable suspicion cannot be just a hunch. It must be based on the facts in question and reasoning from those facts that will lead someone else in the same circumstances to believe that a crime occurred. The reasonable suspicion standard only allows law enforcement to temporarily detain, question and search. It does not allow officers to search or seize because that would require probable cause. Probable cause is a set of facts and circumstances that would lead someone to believe that someone else committed a certain crime. Probable cause is the next level of conviction to stop, search, and charge someone with a crime. Racial profiling, a controversial issue, has become a common problem in policing. Some said they were stopped because they were black or Hispanic. Racial profiling is a different issue; reasonable suspicion cannot be based simply on race or ethnicity. For example, in my personal experience, I usually think that anyone who is out late is suspicious. If I see someone walking in the neighborhood at night, I simply observe… in the middle of the paper… that it occurs in the predominant areas. People might say that racial profiling is being done, but if it's an area where primarily Hispanics or African Americans live, then it's not. Whatever the situation, an officer must articulate the facts and see if there is reasonable suspicion to stop someone. Law enforcement officers need a reason to stop you. Remember, it can't just be a hunch the police officer had. Their action must be supported by facts that led them to believe that you or someone else committed a crime. Like the Supreme Court cases we looked at, they all dealt with reasonable suspicion in some way. Reasonable suspicion is that standard police officers should stop and search someone. They will need plausible cause and higher standards to search and arrest a person. Remember, officers need reasonable suspicion to stop, question and search any weapon.