This creates a situation that allows police officers discretion in the way they think about what they see and how they handle those with whom they come in contact. There has been an effort by the research community to examine issues concerning how police act and respond in general and what police do specifically when they interact with citizens. A conspicuous void in the research effort has been the lack of attention paid to the process by which police officers form suspicion about a suspect whether or not a formal intervention such as a stop was made.
Officers in Savannah, Georgia were observed and debriefed after they became suspicious about an individual or vehicle. Observers accompanied officers on 132, 8-hour shifts, during