Opinion ID: 201791
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Third Prong

Text: 58 The final prong of the qualified immunity analysis, often the most difficult one for the plaintiff to prevail upon, is whether an objectively reasonable official would have believed that the action taken violated that clearly established constitutional right. Starlight Sugar, 253 F.3d at 141. Section 1983 actions frequently turn on the third prong of the qualified immunity inquiry, which channels the analysis from abstract principles to the specific facts of a given case. Cox, 391 F.3d at 31. It is not always evident at the time an official takes an action that a clearly established right is involved. For example, the factual situation might be ambiguous or the application of the legal standard to the precise facts at issue might be difficult; in either case the officer's actions may be objectively reasonable and she may be entitled to qualified immunity. Riverdale Mills, 392 F.3d at 61. Because `the concern of the immunity inquiry is to acknowledge that reasonable mistakes can be made as to the legal constraints on particular police conduct,' even where a plaintiff has shown ... that a government official may have deprived him of a clearly established constitutional right, qualified immunity remains available to defendants who demonstrate that they acted objectively reasonably in applying clearly established law to the specific facts they faced. Burke v. Town of Walpole, 405 F.3d 66, 86 (1st Cir.2005) (quoting Saucier, 533 U.S. at 205, 121 S.Ct. 2151). 14 59 In this case, the added measure of protection provided by qualified immunity, Cox, 391 F.3d at 31, suffices to protect Dunford. To be sure, the objective reasonableness of Wilson's detention deteriorated as events unfolded. At the beginning of the encounter, when she was simply one of a hundred people in a convention hall that was supposedly carefully screened to contain only police officers and persons with outstanding arrest warrants, the odds were extremely high that there was a warrant for Wilson's arrest. That fact made it objectively reasonable for an officer in Dunford's position to believe that arresting Wilson would not violate the Fourth Amendment. 60 Later, when the police became aware that the carefully prepared processing table contained no folder or photograph for her, the reasonableness of her continued detention diminished. Nevertheless, the police could have hypothesized that her folder had been misplaced, and it was not objectively unreasonable to delay releasing her from custody pending final verification of her status. See Rogers v. Powell, 120 F.3d 446, 456 (3d Cir.1997). 61 There remains the approximately thirty minutes during which the police completed routine paperwork and awaited a cuff cutter after they had reached the inescapable conclusion that there had never been a warrant for Wilson's arrest. Although the issue is close, we conclude that Dunford continued to enjoy qualified immunity during this final thirty minutes of detention. Cf. id. at 456-57 (holding that police did not enjoy qualified immunity for a period where they acknowledged that plaintiff had to be released, but nevertheless kept him handcuffed). After confirming Wilson's identity and her lack of a warrant, Dunford ordered the officers to release her; subsequent delay arose from routine paperwork and time waiting for a cuff cutter to arrive. Qualified immunity protects all but the plainly incompetent or those who knowingly violate the law. Malley v. Briggs, 475 U.S. 335, 341, 106 S.Ct. 1092, 89 L.Ed.2d 271 (1986). The delay in effecting Wilson's release, while undoubtedly exasperating to her, was due to simple administrative inefficiency, not plain incompetence or knowing violation of the law. Consequently, we affirm the district court's judgment in favor of Dunford. 15