Section of Motion to Suppress Arguing Court Should Discount Police Assertion that Stop Took Place in a “High-Crime Area” When Conducting Reasonable Suspicion Analysis

This motion to suppress section argues that courts should discount officer statements that events took place in a “high-crime” area when conducting reasonable suspicion analyses. (The same data and arguments could also be used to discount “high-crime neighborhood” assertions in probable cause analyses.) The cited social science research demonstrates that (a) police are inconsistent about how they define high-crime areas (pp. 3-4); (b) police designations of high-crime areas are not accurate in defining actual crime rates or predictions for criminal behavior (p.4); and (c) police use high-crime area designations disproportionately against Black individuals (pp. 5-7).