Cites, please for these points from your post:
1. That reasonable suspicion must be articulable at inception of a detention.
Popple v. State, 626 So. 2d 185 - Fla: Supreme Court 1993
There are essentially three levels of police-citizen encounters. The first level is considered a consensual encounter and involves only minimal police contact. During a consensual encounter a citizen may either voluntarily comply with a police officer's requests or choose to ignore them. Because the citizen is free to leave during a consensual encounter, constitutional safeguards are not invoked. United States v. Mendenhall, 446 U.S. 544, 100 S.Ct. 1870, 64 L.Ed.2d 497 (1980).
The second level of police-citizen encounters involves an investigatory stop as enunciated in Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968). At this level, a police officer may reasonably detain a citizen temporarily if the officer has a reasonable suspicion that a person has committed, is committing, or is about to commit a crime. § 901.151 Fla. Stat. (1991). In order not to violate a citizen's Fourth Amendment rights, an investigatory stop requires a well-founded, articulable suspicion of criminal activity. Mere suspicion is not enough to support a stop. Carter v. State, 454 So.2d 739 (Fla. 2d DCA 1984).
While not involved in the instant case, the third level of police-citizen encounters involves an arrest which must be supported by probable cause that a crime has been or is being committed. Henry v. United States, 361 U.S. 98, 80 S.Ct. 168, 4 L.Ed.2d 134 (1959); § 901.15 Fla. Stat. (1991).
Hence my statement, "If ordered to stop, it instantly becomes a detainment and reasonable suspicion needs to be articulable at that point." The key word is "ordered". So long as the individual is being "asked" and not "ordered" and the individual is free to decline, it remains a consentual stop.
2. That an identity demand can only be made if RAS is present
Jackson v. State, 319 So. 2d 617 - Fla: Dist. Court of Appeals, 1st Dist. 1975
The issue of the constitutionality of the Jacksonville ordinance has not been raised in this case, but it can readily be seen that the first element of the Jacksonville ordinance (reasonable grounds to believe that the person observed may have committed or may imminently commit an offense, etc.) must be present for an officer to stop a citizen on the public street and demand identification.
3. That an identity demand turns an encounter into a detention.
Bautista v. State, 902 So. 2d 312 - Fla: Dist. Court of Appeals, 2nd Dist. 2005
We conclude that when the officers asked Bautista to remove his wallet, the statement was a demand that changed the nature of the encounter from a consensual one to a detention. See Armstrong v. State, 880 So.2d 1283, 1283 (Fla. 2d DCA 2004) (concluding that when an officer asked Armstrong to come to him and to open his hand, the officer's statement was a demand resulting in a seizure because a reasonable person in Armstrong's position would conclude that he or she was not free to end the encounter and leave). The record reflects that the officers had no basis to ask for Bautista's wallet and detain him because, at the time, they did not have a reasonable suspicion that Bautista had committed, was committing, or was about to commit a crime. See Popple v. State, 626 So.2d 185, 186 (Fla.1993). Instead, they asked for Bautista's identification and wallet to save the owner of the van a towing expense. Corporal Green acknowledged that he did not recall whether Bautista had even expressed any interest in taking the van to another location. Once Bautista denied having any identification, the officers had no basis to detain Bautista or to ask him to remove his wallet from his pants.
4. That an order to stop is a detention (meaning please cite authority showing mere words constitute a seizure, rather than an actual physical seizure of the detainee's body.)
See Popple v. State above, definitions of encounters.
