| affidavit | A sworn, written statement of the information known to an officer that serves as the basis for the issuance of an arrest warrant or a search warrant.
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| arrest | The process of taking a person into legal custody to answer a criminal charge.
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| arrest warrant | A judicial order commanding that a particular person be arrested and brought before a court to answer a criminal charge.
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| charging | The act of formally asserting that a particular person is to be prosecuted for a crime.
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| detention | A temporary and limited interference with a person's freedom for investigative purposes. Also called investigative detention, street stop, and field interrogation.
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| due process | Fairness.
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| due process clause | The title of clauses appearing in both the Fifth and Fourteenth amendments to the Constitution of the United States.
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| exigent circumstances | An exception to the requirement that law enforcement officers have a search warrant; occurs when there is a compelling need for official action and there is no time to get a warrant.
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| procedural criminal law | That branch of criminal law that defines what can and cannot be done with, or to, people.
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| probable cause | A condition in which an officer has suspicion about an individual and knowledge of facts and circumstances that would lead a reasonable person to believe that a crime has been, is being, or is about to be, committed.
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| search | The process of looking for evidence of a crime.
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| search and seizure | The process of looking for evidence of a crime and taking that evidence into the custody of a law enforcement agency.
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| search warrant | Written authorization by a judge allowing law enforcement officers to look for specified items of evidence of a crime in a specified place.
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| stop and frisk | A limited pat down of the outer clothing of a person encountered by a law enforcement officer when the person is acting suspiciously, and the officer, concerned about safety, seeks to determine if the person has a weapon.
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| substantive criminal law | That branch of criminal law dealing with the elements that describe and define a crime.
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