Page 31 - Critical Tasks in Law Enforcement 2020-2021 Sessioin

Task: Probable Cause and Arrest

District of Columbia v. Wesby, 2021 U.S. LEXIS 760 (2018).

• A court will examine the events leading up to the arrest, and then

decide whether these historical facts viewed from the standpoint of
some objectively reasonable officer amounted to probable cause.

• Probable cause is determined not by taking each fact in isolation,

but instead is a combination of all the known facts as the totality of

circumstances.

• Probable cause is a fluid concept that is not readily or even usefully

reduced to a neat set of legal rules.

• Probable cause requires only a probability or substantial chance of

criminal activity, not an actual showing of activity.

©2021 Jack Ryan Legal & Liability Risk Management Institute 30