Suspicious Reasonable Suspicion in Texas College
My question involves civil rights in the State of: Texas
My friend and I were detained in a citizen stop after we appeared to "walk out" of a fraternity house that had been closed for the summer. In each of the police reports filed by the officers they stated that "two suspicious males were seen coming out of the fraternity house" which is why we were stopped. In actuality we had walked up the steps looked inside and walked right back down, we were then followed for 100 yards before we were stopped. After we were stopped it was determined that we had been consuming alcohol underage, but in the report it clearly states that this fact had not been known at first.
The exact wording of each report is as follows:
"Sgt. attempted to identify the two males who he had seen coming out of the Fraternity house."
"I observed two males looking in the windows of the fraternity house and then proceeding down the front step as if coming from within the house."
Does this constitute reasonable suspicion?
Re: Suspicious Reasonable Suspicion in Texas College
Sounds reasonable to me. Normal people do not go peeping in windows of residences. They don't go poking around things that are supposed to be closed. While it's not a crime, it is a reasonable suspicion that you might be committing or preparing to commit one. Stopping to ask what you are doing is not only reasonable but what we call "good police work." The police are free to follow you once their suspicion is aroused (and they don't even have to be able to articulate a reason to do that).