Can police pull you over for a hunch? A traffic stop is very similar to a Terry stop. You need reasonable articulable suspicion to pull over a car. Now, what that usually is is you were going 70 in a 30. And that is reasonable articulable suspicion of speeding. Or you got a tail light out, which can be reasonable articulable suspicion of a traffic violation. They can pull you over for very minor offenses, but it has to be a criminal or traffic offense. You can't be pulling people over for hunches. And my wife would say, "If they ultimately find something illegal, well, then it ought to be legal to have pulled you over in the first place." That's not how it works. My wife is wrong about that. That's not the law. If they find something and they pulled you over for an unlawful reason, a good lawyer will get that suppressed.