Legal Insights

A seizure occurs when police prevents a person from leaving by keeping his driver’s license.

In sum, under the most recent cases a seizure occurs only if: (1) a reasonable person would feel, under all the circumstances, he could not disregard the police inquiries and go about his business; (2) the restraints imposed upon him result from the police conduct itself rather than the happenstance of where the encounter occurred; and (3) the person actually reacted in a manner consistent with being “seized.”

While a police request for identification does not automatically give rise to a seizure, we have stated on previous occasions that “once the identification is handed over to police and they have had a reasonable opportunity to review it, if the identification is not returned to the detainee [it is] difficult to imagine that any reasonable person would feel free to leave without it.” United States v. Battista, 876 F.2d 201, 205 (D.C.Cir.1989); cf. Royer, 460 U.S. at 501, 103 S.Ct. at 1326 (plurality opinion) (noting that a seizure occurred when, among other things, police “retain[ed the defendant’s] ticket and driver’s license … without indicating in any way that he was free to depart”).

United States v. Jordan, 951 F.2d 1278, 1282 (D.C. Cir. 1991)

Filed under: 4th Amendment & Searches

Anton Vialtsin

Anton Vialtsin, Esq., E.I. is a San Diego criminal defense attorney and CJA Panel member in the Southern and Central Districts of California. New case breakdowns every Wednesday on YouTube.

📞 Call 619-357-6677