Opinion ID: 1818601
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: whether a seizure occurred

Text: The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and section 12 of Florida's Declaration of Rights guarantee citizens the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. See U.S. Const. amend. IV; art. I, § 12, Fla. Const. Florida's constitutional protection expressly provides that the right shall be construed in conformity with the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, as interpreted by the United States Supreme Court. See art. I, § 12, Fla. Const. Items obtained in violation of Florida's constitutional protection shall be excluded from evidence if such items would be excluded pursuant to United States Supreme Court jurisprudence. See id. The Fourth Amendment requires all warrantless seizures of a person to be founded upon at least reasonable suspicion that the individual seized is engaged in wrongdoing. See United States v. Mendenhall, 446 U.S. 544, 552, 100 S.Ct. 1870, 64 L.Ed.2d 497 (1980) (plurality opinion); see also Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 21, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968) (determining that reasonableness will depend on the existence of specific and articulable facts which, taken together with rational inferences from those facts, reasonably warrant the intrusion). This requirement governs all seizures of the person, `including seizures that involve only a brief detention short of traditional arrest.' Mendenhall, 446 U.S. at 551, 100 S.Ct. 1870 (plurality opinion) (quoting United States v. Brignoni-Ponce, 422 U.S. 873, 878, 95 S.Ct. 2574, 45 L.Ed.2d 607 (1975)). Not all encounters between law enforcement and individual citizens, however, constitute seizures. See Terry, 392 U.S. at 19 n. 16, 88 S.Ct. 1868 (Obviously, not all personal intercourse between policemen and citizens involves `seizures' of persons.). As the United States Supreme Court has determined: Only when the officer, by means of physical force or show of authority, has in some way restrained the liberty of a citizen may we conclude that a `seizure' has occurred. Id. This Court has defined three levels of police-citizen encounters. See Popple v. State, 626 So.2d 185 (Fla.1993). First are those referred to and defined as consensual encounters, which involve minimal police contact and do not invoke constitutional safeguards. See id. at 186. During a consensual encounter a citizen may either voluntarily comply with a police officer's requests or choose to ignore them. Id. Second are those designated investigatory stops, at which time a police officer may reasonably detain a citizen temporarily if the officer has a reasonable suspicion that a person has committed, is committing, or is about to commit a crime. Id. (citing § 901.151, Fla. Stat. (1991)). [3] The third level is an arrest, which must be supported by probable cause that a crime has been or is being committed. See id. The State does not contend that the actions of Officers Deschamps and Doemer were predicated on reasonable articulable suspicion that Golphin was engaged in criminal activity. [4] Indeed, the record establishes that the officers were only engaged in general field interviews in this area known for narcotics and prostitution and approached the group of men simply, in Officer Doemer's words, to see what they were up to. The rationale voiced by this officer clearly would not provide the requisite reasonable articulable suspicion necessary to justify any form of brief restraint of movement or seizure. See Popple, 626 So.2d at 186; see also Brown v. Texas, 443 U.S. 47, 52, 99 S.Ct. 2637, 61 L.Ed.2d 357 (1979) (The fact that appellant was in a neighborhood frequented by drug users, standing alone, is not a basis for concluding that appellant himself was engaged in criminal conduct. In short, the appellant's activity was no different from the activity of other pedestrians in that neighborhood.). The United States Supreme Court has stated that law enforcement officers do not violate the Fourth Amendment's prohibition against unreasonable seizures merely by approaching individuals on the street and asking them questions if they are willing to listen. See United States v. Drayton, 536 U.S. 194, 200, 122 S.Ct. 2105, 153 L.Ed.2d 242 (2002). Thus, the legal question presented in this matter is whether Golphin had been seized at any point for purposes of the Fourth Amendment considering the totality of circumstances which followed. If so, then this Court must necessarily conclude that any seizure that occurred at any point without the necessary basis in a reasonable articulable suspicion of criminal activity violated Golphin's Fourth Amendment rights. The State posits that the encounter at issue here was in all aspects consensual, and that the retention of the identification as it occurred here for purposes of conducting a warrants check did not elevate the encounter into an investigatory stop for which a reasonable articulable suspicion of criminal activity was necessary to avoid constitutional problems. On the other side, Golphin argues that the encounter was not consensual because he did not feel free to walk away and end the police inquiry. Golphin supports his argument by contending that the police officers had summoned back one man who had attempted to depart, that the police cruiser was parked in such a manner as to block his egress from the area, and that he feared the police dog in the vehicle that subsequently arrived on the scene would chase him if he attempted to leave. The trial court accepted the State's position in determining that the conduct of the officers did not constitute a show of authority that would have caused a reasonable person to believe that he or she was not free to walk away. Important to the trial court's assessment was the fact that the officers approached without lights, sirens or weapons drawn, and did not instruct Golphin to stop or compel the individual who left the area to return. The trial court credited the officers' testimony that the group of men, including Golphin, had been approached in casual conversation and that Golphin freely, consensually, and voluntarily produced his identification. [5] The district court accepted the trial court's findings and agreed with its legal analysis. Relying on the United States Supreme Court's decision in Florida v. Bostick, 501 U.S. 429, 111 S.Ct. 2382, 115 L.Ed.2d 389 (1991), the district court concluded that the police behavior in the present matter obviously failed to communicate an intent to restrict the men. Golphin, 838 So.2d at 708. The district court specifically noted that some of the men walked away from the police without incident and that the record did not establish that the police threatened or harassed Golphin in any way. Id. The district court also relied on record evidence showing that Golphin fully cooperated with the police, volunteered information regarding his criminal history, and never manifested any desire to leave the area. See id. On this basis, the district court concluded [t]he police communicated nothing, by word or act, to lead [Golphin] to reasonably conclude that he was not free to leave. Id. As with the district court below, this Court will accord a presumption of correctness to the trial court's rulings on motions to suppress with regard to the trial court's determination of historical facts, but independently review mixed questions of law and fact that ultimately determine constitutional issues in the Fourth Amendment context. Globe v. State, 877 So.2d 663, 668-69 (Fla.2004) (quoting Nelson v. State, 850 So.2d 514, 521 (Fla.2003)). In so doing, we are guided by the evolution of the parameters of what constitutes a seizure under Fourth Amendment and Florida jurisprudence. Formal arrest is the ultimate form of seizure of a person. See California v. Hodari D., 499 U.S. 621, 624, 111 S.Ct. 1547, 113 L.Ed.2d 690 (1991). In the absence of a formal arrest, whether or not a person has been seized will be adjudged in accordance with the reasonable person standard initially articulated by the United States Supreme Court in United States v. Mendenhall, 446 U.S. 544, 554-55, 100 S.Ct. 1870, 64 L.Ed.2d 497 (1980) (plurality opinion). There the High Court stated: We conclude that a person has been seized within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment 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. Examples of circumstances that might indicate a seizure, even where the person did not attempt to leave, would be the threatening presence of several officers, the display of a weapon by an officer, some physical touching of the person of the citizen, or the use of language or tone of voice indicating that compliance with the officer's request might be compelled. In the absence of some such evidence, otherwise inoffensive contact between a member of the public and the police cannot, as a matter of law, amount to a seizure of that person. Id. at 554-55, 100 S.Ct. 1870 (plurality opinion) (citations and footnote omitted). This Court has similarly provided: Although there is no litmus-paper test for distinguishing a consensual encounter from a seizure, a significant identifying characteristic of a consensual encounter is that the officer cannot hinder or restrict the person's freedom to leave or freedom to refuse to answer inquiries, and the person may not be detained without a well-founded and articulable suspicion of criminal activity. This Court has consistently held that a person is seized if, under the circumstances, a reasonable person would conclude that he or she is not free to end the encounter and depart. Popple, 626 So.2d at 187-88 (citation omitted). Implicit in the reasonable person standard is the notion that if a reasonable person would feel free to end the police encounter, but does not, and is not compelled by the police to remain and continue the interaction, then he or she has consented to the encounter. It is on that basis that both the trial court and district court below determined that Golphin's encounter with Officer Doemer, including his act of providing her with his identification, was consensual in nature. Golphin did not preserve and we have not been asked to separately consider, and indeed do not decide, whether or not Golphin after consensually and voluntarily producing identification specifically consented to Officer Doemer using that identification in his presence to conduct a warrants check or how the lack of any such consent might impact the analysis in this case. Golphin did not argue below [6] that any consent implied by the production of his identification extended only to the examination of its validity, which was undermined or eviscerated when the officer used the identification for the further purpose of conducting a warrants check in his presence. Circumstances may exist in which an officer's conduct exceeds the scope of consent that reasonably can be implied by the act of handing over one's identification, and such circumstances may indicate that a seizure has occurred. [7] That is not, however, an issue currently before this Court. Applying the reasonable person standard to determine whether a seizure has occurred is a fact-intensive analysis in which the reviewing court must consider the totality of the circumstances. As stated by the United States Supreme Court in Florida v. Bostick, 501 U.S. 429, 111 S.Ct. 2382, 115 L.Ed.2d 389 (1991): We adhere to the rule that, in order to determine whether a particular encounter constitutes a seizure, a court must consider all the circumstances surrounding the encounter to determine whether the police conduct would have communicated to a reasonable person that the person was not free to decline the officers' requests or otherwise terminate the encounter. Id. at 439, 111 S.Ct. 2382. The seizure analysis has not traditionally permitted the establishment of bright line rules. Nearly a decade after the United States Supreme Court's determination that we had erred in establishing a per se prohibition on drug interdiction efforts known as bus sweeps, see id. at 435, 111 S.Ct. 2382, it again rejected the Eleventh Circuit's creation of a per se rule that would suppress any evidence obtained during bus sweeps in the absence of the police warning the passengers that they may refuse to cooperate. See United States v. Drayton, 536 U.S. 194, 202, 206, 122 S.Ct. 2105, 153 L.Ed.2d 242 (2002). Instead of a per se rule, the Drayton Court again applied a totality of the circumstances analysis in determining that no seizure had occurred where the officers did not compel answers to their questions, did not brandish weapons or make any intimidating movements, left the aisle free so that passengers could exit, spoke to passengers one by one and in a polite, quiet voice, and said nothing that would suggest to a reasonable person that he or she was barred from leaving the bus or otherwise terminating the encounter. See id. at 203-04, 122 S.Ct. 2105. As in Drayton, the present analysis does not turn solely on any one factor, but must be informed by the total circumstances of the officers' approach, their comportment, Golphin's reaction, and the circumstances surrounding the request for his identification as well as the subsequent warrants check. While bright line rules have been rejected in this context, decades of the utilization of the reasonable person standard has yielded roughly contoured categories of police conduct which will not usually trigger Fourth Amendment concerns. Pertinent to the instant analysis, a police inquiry regarding an individual's identity and accompanying request for identification has not typically constituted a seizure for Fourth Amendment purposes, as long as the police have not communicated the message that compliance with their inquiries is required. [8] See Bostick, 501 U.S. at 435, 111 S.Ct. 2382 (concluding that police may generally ask questions of [an] individual, ask to examine the individual's identification, and request consent to search his or her luggageas long as the police do not convey a message that compliance with their requests is required); see also Drayton, 536 U.S. at 197, 122 S.Ct. 2105 (stating that the Fourth Amendment permits police officers to approach bus passengers at random to ask questions and to request their consent to searches, provided a reasonable person would understand that he or she is free to refuse); Immigration & Naturalization Serv. v. Delgado, 466 U.S. 210, 216, 104 S.Ct. 1758, 80 L.Ed.2d 247 (1984) ([I]nterrogation relating to one's identity or a request for identification by the police does not, by itself, constitute a Fourth Amendment seizure.); Royer, 460 U.S. at 501, 103 S.Ct. 1319 (plurality opinion) (determining that law enforcement officers asking for and examining an individual's airline ticket and driver's license were permissible in themselves). While a noncompulsory request for an individual's identification has been unlikely to implicate the Fourth Amendment in isolation, the retention of identification during the course of further interrogation or search certainly factors into whether a seizure has occurred. Indeed, the United States Supreme Court addressed the retention of identification and travel documents in Royer as the High Court distinguished that case from its earlier determination in Mendenhall. In both cases, narcotics agents approached persons traveling through major airports who were perceived to fit a drug courier profile and requested their travel documents and identification. See Royer, 460 U.S. at 493, 103 S.Ct. 1319; Mendenhall, 446 U.S. at 547, 100 S.Ct. 1870. Similarly, in both cases, these individuals ultimately consented to searches that revealed illicit drugs. See Royer, 460 U.S. at 494-95, 103 S.Ct. 1319; Mendenhall, 446 U.S. at 548-49, 100 S.Ct. 1870. In Mendenhall, two Justices determined that no seizure had occurred because the events evolved on a public concourse, the agents did not wear uniforms or display weapons, and the agents did not summon Mendenhall to their presence. See 446 U.S. at 555, 100 S.Ct. 1870. These Justices also remarked that the officials had requested, but did not demand to see the respondent's identification and ticket. Id. In Royer, however, the High Court reached the opposite conclusion. A plurality of the United States Supreme Court rejected the State's assertion that the entire encounter was consensual, stating: Asking for and examining Royer's ticket and his driver's license were no doubt permissible in themselves, but when the officers identified themselves as narcotics agents, told Royer that he was suspected of transporting narcotics, and asked him to accompany them to the police room, while retaining his ticket and driver's license and without indicating in any way that he was free to depart, Royer was effectively seized for the purposes of the Fourth Amendment. Id. at 501, 103 S.Ct. 1319 (emphasis added). The plurality specifically distinguished the scenario presented in Mendenhall, stating: The case before us differs in important respects. Here, Royer's ticket and identification remained in the possession of the officers throughout the encounter; the officers also seized and had possession of his luggage. As a practical matter, Royer could not leave the airport without them. In Mendenhall, no luggage was involved, the ticket and identification were immediately returned, and the officers were careful to advise that the suspect could decline to be searched. Id. at 504 n. 9, 103 S.Ct. 1319 (emphasis added); accord Jacobson v. State, 476 So.2d 1282, 1285 (Fla.1985) (determining that stop in airport was not a seizure and relying, in part, on the fact that the officers retained the suspects' identification and airline tickets only long enough to examine them, and promptly returned them) (emphasis added). In United States v. Thompson, 712 F.2d 1356 (11th Cir.1983), the Eleventh Circuit applied the lessons from Royer and other airline ticket cases in determining that retention of an individual's driver's license had enhanced a consensual encounter into an investigatory stop. In that case, a Jacksonville Port Authority police officer approached the driver of a vehicle that had been parked in the garage for two weeks. Upon approach, the officer noticed that the driver had a circular object held to his nose which he moved to his lap, capped with a lid, and then moved to his side upon noticing the approaching officer. See id. at 1358. The officer asked the driver for his identification, determined that it appeared valid, but retained the identification while requesting to inspect the object Thompson had placed at his side. See id. The object which Thompson produced in response contained cocaine. See id. The Eleventh Circuit determined that the officer's conduct prior to requesting the object constituted an unlawful investigatory stop. In the court's words: When [the officer] retained Thompson's license, the encounter matured into an investigative stop protected by the Fourth Amendment. Without his driver's license Thompson was effectively immobilized. A reasonable person in these circumstances would not have believed himself free to leave. If Thompson had tried to drive away he could have been arrested for driving without a license. . . . . . . . . . . Contrasted with a person whose airline ticket has been retained, a person in a car whose license has been retained has less reason to expect that he will be permitted to leave. While a person may theoretically purchase another airline ticket and proceed on his way, a driver whose license has been retained may drive away only at the risk of arrest. Thus, the airline ticket cases reinforce, if not compel, our conclusion that a driver whose license has been retained would not reasonably believe himself free to leave. Id. at 1359-61. Subsequently, the Eleventh Circuit refused to apply the analysis undertaken in Thompson to a case involving the retention of a pedestrian's identification. [9] In United States v. De La Rosa, 922 F.2d 675 (11th Cir.1991), a police officer followed the vehicle driven by De La Rosa into his apartment complex. After De La Rosa parked and exited his vehicle, an officer pulled behind De La Rosa's car, exited, and asked to speak with him. See id. at 677. De La Rosa agreed and produced his Georgia driver's license upon request. See id. Before returning the license, the officer asked for and received permission to search De La Rosa's vehicle. See id. The officer handed De La Rosa's identification to a second officer, searched the vehicle, and found evidence of narcotics trafficking. See id. De La Rosa ultimately admitted that he was in the cocaine business, and led officers to other locations where additional evidence was found. See id. at 678. Subsequent to his arrest, De La Rosa sought to suppress the evidence arguing that he consented to the searches only after he was unlawfully seized. See id. The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the district court's denial of the motion to suppress, determining that De La Rosa had not been seized notwithstanding the fact that the police had retained his license for a brief time. See id. The appellate court agreed with the trial court's reliance on the fact that De La Rosa had returned home for the evening and did not intend to use his vehicle in the immediate future. See id. In light of those circumstances, the circuit court determined that a reasonable person would have believed he was free to walk into his home and avoid further conversation with police. See id. The Court distinguished Thompson on the basis that De La Rosa was not intent on driving his vehicle at the time the police retained his license and thus, temporary retention of the license did not preclude [De La Rosa] from terminating the encounter by going into his apartment. Id. at 678 n. 2. The distinction between Thompson and De La Rosa is reflected in the reasoning employed in United States v. Jordan, 958 F.2d 1085 (D.C.Cir.1992). There, the circuit court determined that to decide whether a reasonable person would feel free to disregard the police and go about his business, it becomes crucial to focus on what the person's immediate `business' is, in order to decide if the police retention of his papers would likely impede his freedom to proceed with it. Id. at 1088. Applying that test, the appellate court determined that a seizure had occurred because when the identification was taken Jordan had intended to board a waiting car and depart the bus terminal parking lot. See id. The Jordan court indicated that the case would have posed a more difficult question if the police had requested and retained Jordan's identification as he stood in line to buy a bus ticket or had he been aboard the bus awaiting departure. See id. In addition to the status of the individual as a driver or a pedestrian, federal courts have also considered the circumstances of the warrants check in determining whether a seizure has occurred. In United States v. Analla, 975 F.2d 119 (4th Cir. 1992), police received a call indicating that a person matching the description of the man wanted in connection with a robbery and murder was using a pay phone outside a convenience store. See id. at 121. Two officers approached the man, asked to speak with him, and requested his driver's license and registration. See id. at 122. Upon receipt of the documents, one officer radioed the dispatcher from his walkie-talkie to check for outstanding warrants, while another officer asked for permission to search Analla's car. See id. Analla consented and a pistol later identified as the murder weapon was retrieved from under the driver's seat. See id. In affirming the district court's denial of Analla's motion to suppress, the Fourth Circuit determined that Analla was not seized when the officer approached and asked to see his license and registration. The court noted: [The officer] necessarily had to keep Analla's license and registration for a short time in order to check it with the dispatcher. However, he did not take the license into his squad car, but instead stood beside the car, near where Analla was standing, and used his walkie-talkie. Analla was free at this point to request that his license and registration be returned and to leave the scene. Id. at 124; cf. United States v. Johnson, 326 F.3d 1018, 1022 (8th Cir.2003) (A reasonable person would not believe that he was free to leave a scene where three uniformed officers drew him away from their party, stood closely at either side of him, and took possession of his personal propertyhere, his driver's licensewhile conducting a brief interrogation.). The interpretive case law supports the trial court's determination here that in light of the totality of the circumstances involved, Golphin's encounter with the police was consensual in nature, and did not mature into a seizure on the facts presented simply by virtue of Officer Doemer retaining and using Golphin's identification to conduct a warrants check. Giving due deference to the historical facts found by the trial court, the totality of the circumstances in this case demonstrates that police officers approached a group of men in a casual manner, without use of sirens, lights, or weapons, and without blocking the egress from the area. Certain of the men opted not to talk with the officers and walked away from the scene. Golphin, specifically, interacted primarily with a single officer. The officer engaged Golphin in a casual manner, requested his identification (which he voluntarily provided), and conducted a warrants check in Golphin's presence while continuing to talk in a polite manner with Golphin regarding his criminal record and other issues. Golphin was polite and cooperative throughout the encounter. Once the officer confirmed the open warrant for Golphin's arrest, Golphin was arrested and another officer assisted in conducting the incident search. This is not a case in which Golphin was summoned to the presence of multiple officers, isolated by them in any way, or encountered in a way that would communicate that he was not free to go. Cf. Johnson, 326 F.3d at 1022. Moreover, at the time he was approached, Golphin was not the driver of a vehicle such that abandoning his driver's license identification to the officer's possession would subject him to penalty for violating Florida's traffic laws. See § 322.15, Fla. Stat. (2003) (providing that operating a motor vehicle without a license in one's immediate possession is a traffic infraction). [10] Thus, theoretically, retention of Golphin's identification would not have constrained his ability to either request the return of the identification or simply end the encounter by walking into the apartment in which he was staying. See De La Rosa, 922 F.2d at 678; Jordan, 958 F.2d at 1088. Additionally, although there is nothing in the factual record establishing with absolute certainty the manner in which Officer Doemer conducted the warrants check, the record does show that she did not remove herself from the immediate vicinity of Golphin, and indeed continued to talk with him throughout the course of the warrants check. There is no contention that the officer took possession of Golphin's identification and separated herself from the location by returning to the police cruiser and closing the door behind her to conduct a warrants check, thereby effectively foreclosing his ability to request the return of his identification so that he could proceed on his way. Cf. Analla, 975 F.2d at 124. It must also be considered that Officer Doemer did not retain Golphin's identification while seeking consent to search his person or effects. While search and seizure are most certainly distinct concepts, retention of identification prior to seeking consent to conduct a search has factored into the analysis in some cases in which it has been determined that the entire encounter was nonconsensual. See Jordan, 958 F.2d at 1088 (determining that the police officers' inhibition of Jordan's desire to exit the bus terminal parking lot by retaining his driver's license combined with the fact that the police continued to retain his license when they asked permission to search his tote bag pushes his case over the line); see also United States v. Glover, 957 F.2d 1004, 1009 (2d Cir.1992) (determining that a seizure occurred when government agent requested defendant to proceed to security office for further questioning without returning defendant's identification and without telling defendant that he was free to leave); Smith v. State, 753 So.2d 713, 717 (Fla. 2d DCA 2000) (Altenbernd, A.C.J., concurring) (I place considerable importance on the fact that the officer took Mr. Smith's cigarettes and money away from him and did not ask to perform an oral cavity search until he had possession of this property. Most reasonable people would not feel free to walk away from an officer who had their money.); Barna v. State, 636 So.2d 571, 572 (Fla. 4th DCA 1994) (holding that contact was an unlawful investigatory stop where police officers informed the defendant that they were investigating due to his presence and that of a companion in a parking lot known for criminal activity and retained his identification to conduct a computer check during which he consented to a search for drugs and weapons). Such a factor is absent in the present case. While we approve the decision of the district court below, our decision today does not stand for an absolute, expansive proposition that retaining identification for the purpose of conducting a warrants check could never implicate constitutional safeguards. Certainly, we can conceive of circumstances where the retention of identification for the purpose of running a warrants check or other purposes, when viewed in the totality of the circumstances, might implicate the Fourth Amendment. We are also mindful of decisions from other jurisdictions in which courts have determined that retention of identification for the purposes of conducting a warrants check elevates an otherwise consensual encounter into an investigatory stop and, in so doing, have highlighted serious concerns that may signal a growing disconnect between the evolution of the reasonable person standard and the realities of modern society. The Supreme Court of Tennessee spoke to this point in State v. Daniel, 12 S.W.3d 420 (Tenn.2000), where it held: [W]hat begins as a consensual police-citizen encounter may mature into a seizure of the person. While many of the circumstances in this case point in the direction of a consensual police-citizen encounter, one circumstance reflects a distinct departure from the typical consensual encounterOfficer Wright's retention of Daniel's identification to run a computer warrants check. Without his identification, Daniel was effectively immobilized. Abandoning one's identification is simply not a practical or realistic option for a reasonable person in modern society. Royer, 460 U.S. at 501-02, 103 S.Ct. at 1326; United States v. Jordan, 958 F.2d 1085, 1087 (D.C.Cir.1992). Contrary to the State's assertion, when an officer retains a person's identification for the purpose of running a computer check for outstanding warrants, no reasonable person would believe that he or she could simply terminate the encounter by asking the officer to return the identification. Accordingly, we hold that a seizure within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment and Article 1, section 7 occurred when Officer Wright retained Daniel's identification to run a computer warrants check. Id. at 427; see also Piggott v. Commonwealth, 34 Va.App. 45, 537 S.E.2d 618, 619 (2000) (By retaining Piggott's identification, Detective Langford implicitly commanded Piggott to stay.); State v. Thomas, 91 Wash.App. 195, 955 P.2d 420, 423 (1998) (Once an officer retains the suspect's identification or driver's license and takes it with him to conduct a warrants check, a seizure within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment has occurred.). Certainly, the dangers posed by crimes such as identity theft and the ever-present threats to our national security make the act of identifying oneself through presentation of valid, government-issued identification a necessary part of a panoply of human endeavors, from cashing a check to boarding an airplane. Thus, the notion that a reasonable person would feel free to end his encounter with the police and risk abandoning his identification is somewhat vulnerable to honest intellectual challenge and discourse. However, by Florida constitutional mandate we are not free to follow the interpretive path of those other states and must be firmly tied to the interpretive construct of our United States Supreme Court decisions. We recognize that the detailed review of federal Fourth Amendment jurisprudence from the United States Supreme Court that has occasioned our consideration of the instant matter leads to the inexorable conclusion that the hypothetical reasonable person carries a heavy, and at times perhaps even an intellectually debatable undue burden, in ensuring his or her individual liberties. In interpreting the scope of the Fourth Amendment, courts appear to have steadily increased expectations that the reasonable person is one who not only knows the full extent of his rights, but zealously protects them to the point that he will not hesitate to confront authority and demand the return of identification so that he may effect his right to walk away. Accordingly, one may reasonably inquire whether the reasonable person standard has in reality become the reasonable person trained in the law standard. Indeed, if reasonable members of the public were asked whether they believed that they could terminate an encounter with a law enforcement officer by simply insisting that the officer return their license or identification, we suggest most would respond in the negative. It is not unreasonable to think that only those versed in search and seizure law may fully understand that the ability of an officer to conduct an identification check is totally contingent upon the civilian's consent to the encounter where no reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing exists. However, even in light of such legitimate concerns, the reasoning and result reached by the trial court and district court below are well supported by the totality of the facts of the instant matter and in accordance with the appropriate totality of the circumstances analysis and approach. The decisions likewise reflect the considerations addressed by numerous federal courts in applying the reasonable person standard to similar factual scenarios and the decisions of our High Court. Finally, we note that district courts in this state have considered cases analogous to this and have reached similar outcomes. See State v. Robinson, 740 So.2d 9 (Fla. 1st DCA 1999) (determining that police officer's contact with Robinson, which included the officer retaining Robinson's identification for the purpose of running a warrants check, constituted nothing more than a routine police-citizen consensual encounter); State v. Chang, 668 So.2d 207 (Fla. 1st DCA 1996) (concluding that running a warrants check on the identification of a man standing in front of a house known for drug trafficking in the company of another man who discarded a manila envelope constituted a consensual encounter between a police officer and a citizen). In summary, having considered the totality of the circumstances, we hold that the interaction between Golphin and Officer Doemer constituted a consensual encounter. Therefore, Fourth Amendment constitutional safeguards were not implicated when Officer Doemer utilized the identification that Golphin voluntarily provided to check for outstanding warrants.