Fourth Amendment-Arrests and Other Detentions

Question 1

What is a seizure?

Answer 1

The Fourth Amendment provides that people should be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. Any exercise of control by a government agent over a person or thing is a seizure. Governmental seizures of persons, including arrests, are seizures within the scope of the Fourth Amendment and so must be reasonable.

Question 2

What consitutes a seizure?

Answer 2

A seizure occurs when, under the totality of the circumstances, a reasonable person would feel that they were not free to decline the officer’s requests or otherwise terminate the encounter.

Question 3

What is an arrest?

Answer 3

An arrest occurs when the police take a person into custody against their will for purposes of criminal prosecution or interrogation.

Question 4

What is the probable cause requirement?

Answer 4

An arrest must be based on probable cause—that is, trustworthy facts or knowledge sufficient for a reasonable person to believe that the suspect has committed or is committing a crime for which arrest is authorized by law. Probable cause is based on the totality of the circumstances.

Question 5

When is a warrant required?

Answer 5

A warrant generally is not required before arresting a person in a public place. However, police generally must have a warrant to effect a nonemergency arrest of a person in their home. The officers executing the warrant may enter the suspect’s home only if there is reason to believe the suspect is within it.

Question 6

What are station house detentions?

Answer 6

Police must have full probable cause for arrest to bring a suspect to the station for questioning or fingerprinting against the person’s will.

Question 7

What is the effect of an invalid arrest?

Answer 7

An unlawful arrest, by itself, has no impact on any subsequent criminal prosecution.

Question 8

What is an investigatory stop?

Answer 8

The police have the authority to briefly detain a person even if they lack probable cause to arrest. If the police have a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity or involvement in a completed crime, supported by articulable facts (that is, not merely a hunch), they may detain a person for investigative purposes. If the police also have reasonable suspicion that the detainee is armed and dangerous, they may frisk the detainee for weapons

Question 9

What is reasonable suspicion for an investigatory stop?

Answer 9

Reasonable suspicion is more than just vague suspicion but is less than probable cause. Whether the police have reasonable suspicion depends on the totality of the circumstances.

Question 10

Who are informants?

Answer 10

When reasonable suspicion is based on an informant’s tip, there must be an indicia of reliability (including predictive information) to be sufficient.

Question 11

What is duration and scope of an investigatory stop?

Answer 11

Investigatory stops are not subject to a specific time limit. The police must act in a diligent and reasonable manner in confirming or dispelling their suspicions. The police may ask the detained person to identify themself (that is, state their name) and generally may arrest the detainee for failure to comply with such a request. The detention will also turn into an arrest if during the detention other probable cause for arrest arises.

Question 12

What are property seizures?

Answer 12

Brief property seizures are similarly valid if based on reasonable suspicion.

Question 13

What are automobile stops?

Answer 13

Generally, police officers may stop a car if they have at least reasonable suspicion to believe that a law has been violated.

Question 14

What are traffic stops?

Answer 14

During routine traffic stops, a dog sniff is not a search, so long as the police do not extend the stop beyond the time needed to issue a ticket or conduct normal inquiries. Moreover, in 2013 the Supreme Court held that during such a traffic stop, a dog “alert” to the presence of drugs can form the basis for probable cause for a search.
But note: In 2013, the Supreme Court also held that the police (without probable cause) cannot use a drug sniffing dog outside of the home of a suspected drug dealer.

Question 15

What happens when police officer’s have a mistake of law?

Answer 15

A police officer’s mistake of law (for example, mistakenly believing that a vehicle must have two working brake lights) does not invalidate a seizure as long as the mistake was reasonable.

Question 16

Can the police seizure all occupants?

Answer 16

An automobile stop constitutes a seizure not only of the automobile’s driver, but also of any passengers as well. Thus, passengers have standing to raise a wrongful stop as a reason to exclude evidence found during the stop.

Question 17

What happens at informational checkpoints and roadblocks?

Answer 17

If the police set up a roadblock for purposes other than seeking incriminating information about the drivers stopped, the roadblock will be constitutional. If special law enforcement needs are involved, the Supreme Court allows police officers to set up roadblocks to stop cars without individualized suspicion that the driver violated some law. To be valid, the roadblock must:
• Stop cars on the basis of some neutral, articulable standard (for example, every car) and
• Be designed to serve purposes closely related to a particular problem pertaining to automobiles and their mobility.

Question 18

Can the police order occupants out?

Answer 18

After lawfully stopping a vehicle, in the interest of officer safety, the officer may order the occupants of the vehicle to get out. Moreover, if the officer reasonably believes the detainees are armed, the officer may frisk the occupants and search the passenger compartment for weapons, even after the officer has ordered the occupants out.

Question 19

What are pretextual stops?

Answer 19

If the police have probable cause to believe a driver violated a traffic law, they may stop the car, even if their ulterior motive is to investigate a crime for which they lack sufficient cause to make a stop.

Question 20

Can the police perform a detention to obtain a warrant?

Answer 20

If the police have probable cause to believe that a suspect has hidden drugs in their home, they may, for a reasonable time, prevent the suspect from going into the home unaccompanied so that they can prevent the suspect from destroying the drugs while they obtain a search warrant.

Question 21

What happens for the occupants of the premises?

Answer 21

A valid warrant to search for contraband allows the police to detain occupants of the premises during a proper search.

Question 22

What happens at a grand jury appearance?

Answer 22

Seizure of a person (by subpoena) for a grand jury appearance is not within the Fourth Amendment’s protection.

Question 23

What is deadly force?

Answer 23

There is a Fourth Amendment “seizure” when a police officer uses deadly force to apprehend a suspect. An officer may not use deadly force unless it is reasonable to do so under the circumstances (for example, where the suspect poses a danger to their own life or the lives of others).