Opinion ID: 400070
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: General Order 304.10 and Contacts

Text: 4 In 1973 the MPD promulgated General Order 304.10 2 for the purpose of (establishing) policies and procedures ... governing police-citizen 'contacts,' stops, frisks, and motor vehicle spot checks. Metropolitan Police Department General Order 304.10, effective July 1, 1973 (revised August 13, 1978) at 1 (hereinafter General Order); Joint Appendix (J.A.) at 484-500. The General Order has been revised from time to time to reflect changes in the law and to clarify sections of the order that have proved confusing to the MPD officers. 3 5 The portion of the General Order dealing exclusively with contacts provides in pertinent part: 6 A. Contacts. 7 Conduct by an officer which places him in face-to-face communication with an individual under circumstances in which the individual is free to leave if he wishes is considered a contact. Contacts may be initiated by an officer when he reasonably believes that investigation of a situation is justified. The standard for a police citizen-contact (sic) is not probable cause, reasonable suspicion, or any other specific indication of criminal activity. While an officer may initiate a contact for any legitimate purpose, contacts shall not be conducted in a hostile, aggressive manner, or as a means of harassing individuals or coercing them to leave the area. Contacts shall not be initiated merely because a person is hanging around, loitering, or standing on the corner, unless the overall circumstances are such as would reasonably arouse the curiosity, concern, or suspicion of the officer. 8
9 An officer may initiate a contact with a person in any place in which the officer has a right to be.... 10
11 Persons contacted may not be detained against their will or frisked. They may not be required to answer the officer's questions or in any way respond to the officer if they choose not to do so. The officer may not use force or coercion to attempt to require citizens to stop or respond. If they refuse to co-operate, they must be permitted to go on their way; however, if it seems appropriate under the circumstances, they may be kept under surveillance. Since a contact is not a stop or an arrest and the person contacted may be innocent of wrongdoing of any kind, officers should take special care to act in as restrained and courteous a manner as possible. 12 General Order at 1-2; J.A. at 484-85 (emphasis in the original). In contrast, the General Order defines a stop as 13 the temporary detention of a person for the purpose of determining whether probable cause exists to arrest that person. A stop occurs whenever an officer uses his authority to compel a person to halt, or to keep him in a certain place, or to require him to perform some act (such as walking to a nearby location where the officer can use a radio, telephone or call box). If a person is under a reasonable impression that he is not free to leave the officer's presence, a stop has occurred. 14 Id. at 2; J.A. at 485. There is a basis for a stop if (the) officer reasonably suspects that a person has committed, is committing, or is about to commit any crime.... Id. (emphasis in the original). 15 Both types of police-citizen encounters are recorded on a PD Form 76, an MPD form that provides space for recording the name, address, race, sex, date of birth, height, weight, eye and hair color, complexion and clothing of the person encountered. In addition, there is a section in which the officer is to record the justification for the stop or contact. Officers are required to maintain records of stops; records of contacts, however, are not mandatory, but may be required by individual commanding officers. Id. at 16; J.A. at 499. Excluding encounters that result in formal arrests, MPD officers record approximately 14,000 police-citizen encounters per year. 4 16 In March 1980, the Gomez plaintiffs filed an amended and supplemental complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief alleging, inter alia, that (w)hen a police officer contacts a pedestrian pursuant to General Order 304.10 or any other MPD order authorizing such behavior, the officer is making an unreasonable seizure of the pedestrian in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Second Amended and Supplemental Complaint at 1, Gomez v. Jefferson, Civ. No. 2909-67 (D.D.C. May 13, 1981, as amended May 18, 1981) (hereinafter Gomez v. Jefferson); J.A. at 141, 153. Thereafter, both parties moved for summary judgment.