Stop and arrests are both Fourth Amendment seizures. According to the U.S. Supreme Court, so long as officers have probable cause, they do not need to obtain prior judicial approval to make an arrest. Probable cause is a common sense rule. What happens after an arrest depends on the seriousness of the crime and the circumstances surrounding the arrest. The United States Supreme Court has set a rule for the exact quantity of facts required for particular offense categories.
Arrests produce written documents that become part of a person's record.
In order to satisfy the Fourth Amendment, the manner of arrest must be reasonable during both the time prior to arrest in apprehending suspects and after arrest in subduing them. The Fourth Amendment does not require police officers, with probable cause, to secure a warrant to make a misdemeanor arrest in a public place. The Fourth Amendment requires that magistrates base their probable cause determination on information sworn to under oath. In Florida v. Royer , involving a detention in an airport during an illicit drug investigation, the Supreme Court made a bright line distinction between stops and arrests. In practice most arrests are made with both probable cause and warrants.