According to the FOP lodge that represents the Providence officers, the officers were specifically told by a citizen that he had been robbed by two guys in a red car. The citizen observed a red car parked in front of the local firehouse and told the police that that red car looked like the car that was involved in the armed robbery (gun and knife robbery) and that the occupants might be the suspects. It was based on this information that the police approached the red car, ordered the occupants out, etc. Exactly how are the COPS to blame for this? The FOP statement is on the link below:
https://turnto10.com/news/local/providence-firefighter-allegedly-racially-profiled-by-city-police
You obviously don’t know how this is supposed to work.
The police are supposed to be able to determine that the car and occupants were not involved in the reported crime by running the plates, finding out who the owner is, then perform a computer background search on the owner, then call the owner and ask if he/she was anywhere near the location that the crime occurred at.
Once that is done, they are then required to ask the owner’s family and neighbors if the owner could possibly do anything like the crime reported. At that point they must close the investigation as unfounded.