This article examines the factors that courts consider relevant in determining when a seizure occurs and reviews two recent Supreme Court decision applying those factors to police encounters with bus passengers and to police chases.
The Supreme Court applies a reasonable person standard to distinguish a consensual encounter from a seizure. It determines whether a consensual encounter is transformed into a seizure by assessing the coercive effect of police conduct. In the case of a police encounter with a bus passenger, the Supreme Court ruled the encounter was consensual because the passenger movements were confined as the natural result of his decision to take the bus and not because the police conduct was coercive. In the police chase case, the Supreme Court ruled that a necessary condition for a seizure affected through a show of authority is a submission to that authority. The following eight factors are considered relevant in determining whether a particular encounter between police and citizens in consensual or a fourth amendment seizure: physical contact, number of officers, display of weapons, interference with freedom of movement, movement from the initial site of the encounter, demeanor and appearance, retention of personal property, and advising citizens about their right to refuse. Knowing these factors will help officers ensure that the fourth amendment is not implicated until they have established sufficient suspicion to justify a seizure.