Police officers play a central role in the law enforcement system. They monitor criminal activity, take part in community patrols, respond to emergency calls, issue tickets, make arrests, investigate crimes and testify in court as needed. A police officer's first order of business is to serve and protect. In fact, the phrase "serve and protect" is common in the credo of many law enforcement agencies. Police officers serve their communities by helping citizens in times of crisis and emergency, such as when a natural disaster hits. To protect citizens on the road, they issue tickets to dangerous and careless drivers. To protect them in their …show more content…
While a suspect is detained, a computer search can be performed to see if the suspect is wanted for crimes. If so, he or she may be arrested and searched incident to that arrest."Stop and Frisk." TheFreeDictionary.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Aug. 2016. Investigatory detention became an important law enforcement technique in the 1980s as police sought to curtail the trafficking of illegal drugs. In the United States v. Sokolow, 490 U.S. 1, 109 S. Ct. 1581, 104 L. Ed. 2d 1 (1989), the Supreme Court ruled that the police have the power to detain, question, and investigate suspected drug couriers. The case involved a Terry stop at an international airport, during which the defendant aroused suspicion by conforming to a controversial "drug courier profile" developed by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). The Court said that the DEA profile gave the officer reasonable suspicion, "which is more than a mere hunch, but less than probable cause."Stop and Frisk." TheFreeDictionary.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Aug. 2016. The trend of police stopping individual for questioning is normal in certain part of the world. As a traveler and an international businessman, I have had a lot of experiences in other …show more content…
In Alabama v.White, 496 U.S. 325, 110 S. Ct. 2412, 110 L. Ed. 2d 301 (1990), the Court upheld a Terry stop of an automobile based solely on an anonymous tip that describes a certain car that would be at a specific location. Police went to the site, found the vehicle, and detained the driver. The police then found marijuana and cocaine in the automobile. The Court observed that it was a "close case" but concluded that the tip and its corroboration were sufficiently reliable to justify the investigatory stop that ultimate"Stop and Frisk." TheFreeDictionary.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Aug. 2016.
Ely led to the arrest of the driver and the seizure of the