Reed was arrested and detained twice under a widespread police practice in which officers conducted field interrogations in known narcotics-trafficking areas. Individuals were detained while their names were checked in computer databases for outstanding warrants, previous convictions and arrests. Reed was detained twice for three weeks at a time. First, Officers Chen and Langle detained him without lawful basis and prepared false police reports. The following month, Ugarte and Vivanco detained Reed again. Under the practice, when a computer query revealed that the subject of the interrogation was not sought in an outstanding warrant but had previous drug arrests, police officers arrested the suspect and falsely asserted that he or she had possessed a small quantity of a controlled substance.