Fourth Amendment; 2) even if he was, Clarke did not direct the seizure;
and 3) the seizure was reasonable in any event. Determining whether
Black was seized at all is sufficient to dispose of the claim.
Stated in general terms, a seizure occurs when a person’s “freedom
of movement” is restrained either by “physical force” or a “show of
authority.” United States v. Mendenhall, 446 U.S. 544, 553 (1980). Not all
encounters between law enforcement and citizens constitute seizures.
Police-citizen encounters generally fall into one of three categories, only
the first two of which constitute seizures: (1) an arrest, requiring probable
cause; (2) an investigatory stop, limited to “a brief, non-intrusive
detention” based on specific and articulable facts supporting reasonable
suspicion of criminal activity; and (3) voluntary encounters involving no
restraint on the citizen’s liberty. United States v. Scheets, 188 F.3d 829, 836
(7th Cir. 1999). A seizure occurs “only if, in view of all of the
circumstances surrounding the incident, a reasonable person would have
believed that he was not free to leave.” Mendenhall, 446 U.S. at 554.
Because this question is context-dependent, courts have developed
various factors to determine whether a seizure has occurred. For example,
circumstances indicative of a seizure include
the threatening presence of several officers, display of their
weapons, physical touching of the private citizen, use of
forceful language or tone of voice (indicating that
compliance with the officers’ request might be compelled),
and the location in which the encounter takes place. Courts
also consider whether police made statements to the citizen
intimating that he or she was a suspect of a crime, whether
the citizen’s freedom of movement was intruded upon in
some way, whether the encounter occurred in a public or
private place, and whether the officers informed the suspect
Page 11 of 27
Case 2:17-cv-00156-JPS Filed 01/05/18 Page 11 of 27 Document 39
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