Where 911 caller reported that plaintiff had aimed a gun at him and officers stopped plaintiff’s car with guns drawn, handcuffed him, tried to put him in back of police car, and released him within minutes, stop did not transform into an arrest.
Officer stopped two boys—ages 12 and 14—who matched a vague decision of suspects in car chase from gang stakeout, held them for seven minutes at gunpoint, handcuffed and frisked them, even though boys’ mother and stepfather identified them during encounter and boys identified themselves and complied with police commands; time involved was not unreasonable; handcuffing for two minutes did not transform Terry stop into arrest because officer had heard that one of the suspects wanted usually carried a gun and one of the boys moved his left hand behind his back and touched his waist be
Officers who detained and frisked plaintiff based solely on knowledge he had been arrested before and notion that there “might be” an outstanding warrant on him, although they had no articulable facts to support that suspicion, violated Fourth Amendment and were not entitled to qualified immunity.
Officer could not arrest vehicle passenger for refusing to produce identification, absent reasonable suspicion that suspect had violated some predicate, underlying crime.
Settlements and verdicts in related cases for 44 African-American men, many accused of drug dealing, strip searched on the street by Oakland police officers pursuant to custom and written strip search policy. Settlement reached after verdicts in favor of two test plaintiffs. (No deaths).
Merely asking a person for identification does not constitute a seizure; that officers told persons who furnished ID that they could not leave until and unless their name checks were clear raised an issue of fact about whether a reasonable person would have felt free to leave; where officers observed plaintiffs violating an aggressive panhandling ordinance, it did not unreasonably prolong a Terry stop to run a brief warrant check.