Originally Posted by Mainsail

Sorry, you are wrong.

The phrase is reasonable articulable suspicion that a crime is afoot. In other words, the officer must be able to articulate a specific crime that he or she believes you have broken, are breaking, or will break. They cannot detain you for odd behavior, a weird hairdo, or wearing a watch. There has to be a crime.

Reasonable articulable suspicion to detain (seize).
Probable cause to arrest.

So if open carry is not illegal, the police cannot detain you for mere open carry- period, end of sentence.

It doesn't matter if someone called and reported it; if the report was for mere open carry, the police cannot detain you.

As to 'reasonable', it all comes down to what the officer knew at the time of the stop. If the officer knew you were lawfully carrying, it would be illegal for him to detain you. During the early years of open carry in WA, there were a dozen or so out-of-court settlements where the open carry person was paid lots of money to prevent a lawsuit against the officers and agencies that detained them. I know one guy used his to buy his-&-hers new motorcycles, and other that collected around $10K when he was illegally detained by an airport police agency (yes, you may open carry in the airport).

Note also that if the officer knew, or reasonably should have known, that he was detaining a person (a seizure is a deprivation of a civil right) without reasonable articulable suspicion, he could lose his qualified immunity and sued civilly as well. In other words, he could lose his assets like his house or vehicles.

Can they "talk" to you about it? Of course, as can anyone else. You are not obligated to talk to the officer, show ID, or a carry permit/license. In such a case you may simply walk away, and for several reasons you should.

Here’s the kicker; you have the same right to privacy while carrying concealed, or not carrying at all, as you do when you’re carrying openly. It seems like the height of foolishness to carry a firearm, even concealed, and not know when and how the police are allowed to detain you.