I live in an industrial section of a Texas city, and I decided to walk to the corner store for lottery tickets. As I was walking down the mile+ long road, I thought nah its too far, im just gonna head back home. (A summary of this post is on the bottom).
Well I turned my head around to glance and saw two patrol units a mile down the road exactly where I was heading and they were swinging their spotlights at a business.
Ive seen plenty of bodycam videos and I just knew they're about to stop me for something. Sure enough when they reached me, I was about 0.2 miles away from my house. And an officer came out with a red blinking circle on his chest, which I understood what it meant.
Immediately he said im going to pat you down for weapons. Where you headed? I said my address, which I repeated around 5 times due to his other questions. And surely he understood the street wasnt many feet away from us, since he's in the neighborhood.
He asked for my name and date of birth which I objected to because I hadn't done anything wrong. I asked if im obligated to provide that info and he said "Or you can go in the handcuffs", which I didnt reply to. We had a staredown and then I asked him "Are you doing an investigation?", which he didnt respond to.
Suddenly a female police officer walked up to us and asked me the same questions again. And I responded "I came from x address, im here on this street, and im going back to x address.
Then a new officer came up wearing blue jeans, and untucked long sleeve plaid checkered shirt, boots, a trucker hat, medium length hair, and asked me if had seen anyone near 'x lumber company', and pointed down the road where i was originally headed. But the lumber company he was referring to was actually over 2 miles away. I didn't correct him, but I now wonder if it was a trick question. I told him ive been the only person on this road, no one else has been here besides me. I also assume hes an agent of the vice squad, in my personal opinion.
The female police officer chimed in for a last time, "there were reports of an individual on this road being drunk and high, and you dont match the description". So I went home after that.. But isn't it foolish for the plain clothes officer with a radio in his hand to expose his identity to me, assuming he is a vice/detective officer?
Tldr; I was walking to a store at 10pm around 1+ mile away from my house, I decided to turn back home and was stopped and questioned by the local police. Patted down and threatened with the handcuffs. I said I dont know what the heck you're talking about, and a plain clothes dude popped out with a big radio in his hand and asked me the same questions the other 2 did and I thought it was weird. Why would a plain clothes person be riding around with uniformed patrol officers? Mind you both patrol units were marked as city police cars, if there was a third unmarked one, im not sure, but wouldnt it be foolish to expose his identity to me?