How do the cops know if someone is or isn’t breaking the law, without investigating?
Don’t understand your point.
Are you saying that if I am sitting in my car outside a bank a police officer has the right or need to investigate if I might be planning on robbing the bank?
Surely they don’t know if I am breaking the law or not if they do not investigate..
If someone from the bank were to call the police and say that you were doing something that they felt warranted investigation, then yes. In this case, it was someone on the trail reporting what they thought was something worth reporting.
“Don’t understand your point.”
I think the point was being made in the context of a police call. At that point, the police are obligated to investigate.