Glossary / Stops, Detention & Rights / Detained Detained Temporarily not free to leave while police investigate. Not an arrest, and the distinction matters: a detention is meant to be brief and limited to the reason for it.
Commonly heard as “Am I being detained?” “You're being detained, not arrested” More in Stops, Detention & Rights Read this first
Every term here is one that comes up in the United States, in the footage covered in the Atlas Ioka videos , explained as it is used on police radio, in reports and on camera. This is not legal advice and not a statement of law in any particular place: radio codes, offense definitions, testing procedure and evidentiary rules all vary between agencies and between states, so treat each entry as a starting point rather than an authority.
