Being noticeable nervous is not justification on its own to detain somebody according to a recent ruling from the NC Court of Appeals. The case in question, involved the stop of a vehicle based on the defendant’s weaving in his lane of travel and suspicion of driving while impaired. The police officer after stopping the vehicle and interacting with its driver noticed no odor of alcohol as the defendant produced his driver’s license and the car rental agreement. The vehicle being driven was a rental. The police officer decided only to cite the defendant with a warning ticket. However, the police officer noticed the defendant had a rapid heartbeat and was sweating at the time he cited the defendant with the warning. Subsequently, he decided to detain the defendant to investigate further. The police officer acquired consent from the defendant to search the vehicle and found trafficking amounts of marijuana in the trunk. The defendant was never told he was free to leave after being issued the warning. In fact, he was detained in the police officer’s patrol car while the police officer searched his vehicle. The Court ruled that the police officer must have articulable and reasonable suspicion in order to justify further delay since the encounter was not consensual. In looking at the totality of the circumstances, nervousness alone exhibited by the defendant’s rapid heartbeat and noticeable sweating was not sufficient enough to establish articulable and reasonable suspicion. Therefore, the continued detention of the defendant was unconstitutional and the defendant’s consent to the search of his vehicle was involuntary (State v. Myles, 654 S.E.2d 752 (2008)).