Suspect is a word that describes someone who is believed to have committed a crime. Suspect may also refer to a person, animal, or thing that is believed to be the cause of something. For example, if a house fire is caused by faulty wiring, the electrician is likely to be suspect. The word may also be used facetiously to describe the usual suspects, the people and things that are often associated with a particular activity or situation (such as a farm full of sheep and bunnies and roosters).
A law-enforcement officer can hold a person as a suspect if there is actual indications giving rise to so-called initial suspicion. This suspicion is not sufficient for an arrest, but it allows officers to conduct stops and frisks. The second level of suspicion is reasonable suspicion. This entails a more than 50 percent chance that a crime has been committed or will be committed, based on the totality of the circumstances.
Police officers are required to read suspects their Miranda rights when they interrogate them about alleged offenses. The right to remain silent, the right to have an attorney present during questioning, and other rights are enshrined in the US Constitution and enforceable by the courts.
Suspects may be subjected to formal police lineups, wherein they are placed among others who are not suspected of committing the offenses in question. This is an alternative to using photographs and other identification methods, which the Supreme Court has ruled are impermissibly suggestive. Once the investigation is complete and the suspect has been bound over for trial, the prosecutor issuing an information or a grand jury issuing a true bill or indictment, the suspect is then called a defendant.