Originally Posted by xyzzy
Profiling cars and stopping them just to see if anything illegal is in them is illegal. Courts have ruled on this.
A policeman can cruise by the guy looking into your window at 1am. I suppose he could write him a ticket for loitering. He could also haul the person in if he's obviously drunk. But that's about it. He can't search the guy just because he's standing on the public sidewalk at 1am.
But he can ask, and the guy can do whatever he agrees to do, good police work stops a lot of crime before it happens.