RangerDave wrote:
I agree that this would likely not be considered "constructive arrest" in the sense of custodial detention, but I think it would almost certainly still be considered a seizure/detention for 4th Amendment purposes. As others have pointed out, the standard for that is simply whether a reasonable person would feel free to leave or otherwise decline to cooperate with the officers' requests, and the Supreme Court has stated that this is determined by a totality of the circumstances. In U.S. v. Mendenhall, the Court gave some examples of circumstances that "might indicate a seizure", including "the threatening presence of several officers; the display of a weapon by an officer;...or the use of language or tone of voice indicating that compliance with the officer's request might be compelled." It seems pretty obvious that the presence of a 12-man SWAT team blocking off your street and evacuating your neighbors while a police negotiator calls and asks you to step outside is going to satisfy that standard!
No, actually it doesn't seem obvious at all. He was contacted by a negotiator, not just some regular cop askign him "Hey, can you come outside for a sec?" It's quite safe to presume that the negotiator held a brief conversation with him and explained why they were there and why they had the SWAT team. A person of normal intelligence would be curious about that.
This is especially true when taken in conjunction with the Castle doctrine. The man was within his own home, and the police did not have a warrant, hence they made no attempt to come get him. If they had no warrant, they also had no basis to arrest him when he was leaving, and any suspicion that he would be arrested if he did is mere speculation on his part. The mere presence of large numbers of officers, by itself, is not a reasonable basis to assume one is not free to leave.
As the case you cited states:
Quote:
The facts that the respondent was 22 years old, had not been graduated from high school, and was a Negro accosted by white officers, while not irrelevant, were not decisive.
In this case, while there were numbers of armed officers present, the subject also was not a young person, was not directly in contact with the officers, and was within the safety of his home from where he could easily ascertain their intent during the phone conversation. Like the case you cite, there is little reason to think that his Fourth Ammendment protection against seizure has, in any way, been compromised.