Legal Question in Criminal Law in Tennessee

You can be pulled over for probable cause, which is a subjective decision made the police officer. Probable cause has been defined as "a reasonable amount of suspicion, supported by circumstances sufficiently strong to justify a prudent and cautious person's belief that certain facts are probably true". According to this definition, probable cause requires a reasonable amount of suspicion, not mere suspicion. Every situation that requires probable cause, including warrants and searches without a warrant, have different levels of probable cause. In order to legally pull someone over, the officer must observe a traffic violation or a crime being committed within the car. However, traffic violations include any number of simple things, such as failing to use your blinker, a headlight out, or pretty much anything else the officer claims he observed, such as swerving. Unfortunately, the reality of the situation is that an officer can pull you over for any reason he wants, even mere suspicion, as long as he adequately explains his probable cause as being either observation of a traffic violation or a crime being committed. Furthermore, an officer may pull a car over If the car and its occupants fit a criminal profile, and the officer can describe specific factors that fit the profile that prompted the traffic stop.

Therefore, the answer to your question is yes, you can be pulled over on mere suspicion even though it would be an illegal stop because it wasn't based on probable cause. If the illegal traffic stop results in your arrest for some reason, your attorney can challenge the reason for the traffic stop and whether there was probable cause to pull you over in the first place. However, it's really your word against that of the police officer, and sadly, the constitutional rights of individuals are compromised on a regular basis because the officer's account of the situation is normally taken as the truth.