Firsthand accounts used to establish probable cause are called ...

• A. Indirect Information
• B. Witness Information
• C. Direct Observations
• D. Affidavit

Answer: (C)

Probable cause can rest on what the officer personally experiences through their senses during an encounter. Those firsthand observations—what the officer directly sees, hears, smells, or otherwise perceives in the moment—are called direct observations. They provide immediate, built-in credibility because the source is the officer’s own perception, not secondhand reports from others.

Indirect information relies on secondhand tips, rumors, or information from others that the officer has not personally verified. Witness information can be firsthand if the witness actually observed the event, but the phrase here emphasizes the officer’s own sensory experience. An affidavit is a sworn written statement used to present facts to a judge; it’s a document that can contain various types of information, but it’s not the term for firsthand observations itself. Hence, direct observations is the best fit for first-hand accounts used to establish probable cause.