I had a client a few years ago who was stopped by Frisco Police one evening around 8pm. My client was a young black male, and the officer who stopped him had received a dispatch about a young black male who had robbed a Sonic twenty or so minutes earlier. The cop had pulled my client over for a minor traffic violation across town from where the robbery had occurred.

From the outset, the cop was convinced that he had found one of the robbery suspects. For eighteen minutes after initially approaching my client and his passenger, the cop asked question after question about who my client was, where he was coming from, and such. My client was coming from the gym, and the cop asked him where his gym clothes were (“I have a locker at the gym”); the cop asked where the passenger’s car was (“At the CVS by the gym in the parking lot”); and on and on. The cop even had another cop go check for the passenger’s car at the CVS.

All the while, the cop is getting updates from dispatch on the description of the robbery suspect: facial hair, driving a convertible, over six feet tall, glasses, lean build. My client was driving a hardtop; his passenger was driving a hardtop. My client and the passenger had no facial hair. My client was barely 5’7” and the passenger was about that tall. No glasses on either.

So, absolutely nothing that dispatch was reporting matched my client or his passenger (other than they were both young black males), but the cop was completely convinced that he had nailed the robbery suspect. More questions. And then, after 18 minutes or so of questions:

Cop: “Where did you say you were coming from again?”

Client: “Why?”

Cop: “I’m just wondering.”

Client: “And now I’m wondering why you’re wondering.”

(Client did give me permission to share Client’s story. Ultimately, the Client was arrested for a misdemeanor charge—not robbery or anything related to the Sonic incident. After the case was set for a motion to suppress the unlawfully prolonged detention, the State dismissed the case.)