{"id":25278,"date":"2024-11-10T06:29:16","date_gmt":"2024-11-10T11:29:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/?p=25278"},"modified":"2025-12-18T12:22:35","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T17:22:35","slug":"reasonable-articulable-suspicion-vs-probable-cause-in-maine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/reasonable-articulable-suspicion-vs-probable-cause-in-maine\/","title":{"rendered":"Reasonable Articulable Suspicion vs Probable Cause in Maine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-25043 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Picture-4.png\" alt=\"Maine criminal defense lawyers John Scott Webb and Vincent LoConte have a lot of courtroom experience challenging illegal stops and searches by Maine police. John is an expert on articulable suspicion and probable cause.\" width=\"624\" height=\"144\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Picture-4.png 624w, https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Picture-4-300x69.png 300w, https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Picture-4-520x120.png 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 624px) 100vw, 624px\" \/><br \/>\nJohn Scott Webb, a Southern Maine Criminal Defense Lawyer in Saco and Portland, Explains<\/p>\n<p>The key differences between reasonable articulable suspicion (RAS) and probable cause (PC) in Maine are:<\/p>\n<p>Reasonable Articulable Suspicion (RAS): If you are cruising down the road in Southern Maine and you commit a traffic violation like running a red light, a Southern Maine police officer has the legal right to briefly stop and detain you. The officer can also pull you over if you are driving recklessly, for example weaving between lanes, or going 20 miles over the posted speed limit. The officer must articulate specific facts that led to their suspicion. Common factors that can establish RAS include the police officer observing traffic violations, erratic driving, or other suspicious behavior.<\/p>\n<div class=\"read_more_link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/reasonable-articulable-suspicion-vs-probable-cause-in-maine\/\"  title=\"Continue Reading Reasonable Articulable Suspicion vs Probable Cause in Maine\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>John Scott Webb, a Southern Maine Criminal Defense Lawyer in Saco and Portland, Explains The key differences between reasonable articulable suspicion (RAS) and probable cause (PC) in Maine are: Reasonable Articulable Suspicion (RAS): If you are cruising down the road in Southern Maine and you commit a traffic violation like running a red light, a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,6,4,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-criminal-defense","category-maine-criminal-law","category-oui-law","category-police-procedures"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Reasonable Articulable Suspicion vs Probable Cause in Maine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Can the police pull you over for no reason? What are reasonable articulable suspicion and probable cause? Maine criminal lawyer John Scott Webb explains.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/reasonable-articulable-suspicion-vs-probable-cause-in-maine\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Reasonable Articulable Suspicion vs Probable Cause in Maine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Can the police pull you over for no reason? What are reasonable articulable suspicion and probable cause? Maine criminal lawyer John Scott Webb explains.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Picture-4.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Webb Law Firm\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Reasonable Articulable Suspicion vs Probable Cause in Maine","description":"Can the police pull you over for no reason? What are reasonable articulable suspicion and probable cause? 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Maine criminal lawyer John Scott Webb explains.","twitter_image":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Picture-4.png","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Webb Law Firm","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/reasonable-articulable-suspicion-vs-probable-cause-in-maine\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/reasonable-articulable-suspicion-vs-probable-cause-in-maine\/"},"author":{"name":"Webb Law Firm","@id":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2a779c0cfb58df839ae19364412f5dc6"},"headline":"Reasonable Articulable Suspicion vs Probable Cause in Maine","datePublished":"2024-11-10T11:29:16+00:00","dateModified":"2025-12-18T17:22:35+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/reasonable-articulable-suspicion-vs-probable-cause-in-maine\/"},"wordCount":1012,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/reasonable-articulable-suspicion-vs-probable-cause-in-maine\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Picture-4.png","articleSection":["Criminal Defense","Maine Criminal Law","OUI Law","Police Procedures"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/reasonable-articulable-suspicion-vs-probable-cause-in-maine\/","url":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/reasonable-articulable-suspicion-vs-probable-cause-in-maine\/","name":"Reasonable Articulable Suspicion vs Probable Cause in Maine","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/reasonable-articulable-suspicion-vs-probable-cause-in-maine\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/reasonable-articulable-suspicion-vs-probable-cause-in-maine\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Picture-4.png","datePublished":"2024-11-10T11:29:16+00:00","dateModified":"2025-12-18T17:22:35+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2a779c0cfb58df839ae19364412f5dc6"},"description":"Can the police pull you over for no reason? 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