POLICE CONTROLS OVER CITIZEN USE OF THE PUBLIC STREETS.

This article examines the operation and validity of several types of laws, most often passed by municipal legislatures, which regulate the citizen's use of the public streets. To be considered, also, is the often asserted right of the police to stop and question persons on the street in the absence of circumstances justifying arrest and detention. In varying degrees, many municipalities have on the books curfew, loitering, dress, and association laws. The penalties attached to the violation of these laws are usually slight, and usually they are never enforced, or at most, sporadically enforced, and even then only against those persons such as juveniles and vagrants who would not be expected to appeal from the decisions of the magistrate type of court which most often has jurisdiction in these cases. It is not unusual, therefore, that there are few cases in the reports dealing with such laws. Nevertheless, because freedom of movement, dress, and association are, no doubt, activities having constitutional implications, and because such laws have been widely enacted, it is important that these restrictions be closely scrutinized. The police generally have the authority to arrest and detain, without warrant, (1) those persons who commit a crime in the presence of the officer or, (2) when a specific crime, which is within the policeman's knowledge, has been committed and there is reasonable cause for believing the arrested person committed it.