Opinion ID: 2583058
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Request to remove hands from pockets

Text: ¶ 20 The progressive intrusion into Harrington's privacy snowballed quickly after Bryan's arrival. Lower courts in Washington have found an officer's request to keep hands out of one's pockets does not independently rise to the level of a seizure. See State v. Nettles, 70 Wash.App. 706, 712, 855 P.2d 699 (1993). The Nettles court found that asking a person to remove his hands from his pockets was no more intrusive than asking for identification. Id. Elsewhere, directing an individual to merely remove hands from pockets has been held to fall short of a seizure. See, e.g., Duhart v. United States, 589 A.2d 895, 898 (D.C.App.1991) (When officer approached defendant on street, asked him to take his hand out of his pocket, and, when defendant reluctantly complied, officer grabbed his wrist, no seizure occurred until officer grabbed defendant's wrist. The request that defendant remove hands from pockets constituted merely a pre-seizure consensual encounter.); United States v. Barnes, 496 A.2d 1040, 1044-45 (D.C.App. 1985) (no seizure where officer asked defendant to remove hands from pockets and then asked him two questions, because this was no more intrusive than asking for identification). ¶ 21 Nonetheless asking a person to perform an act such as removing hands from pockets adds to the officer's progressive intrusion and moves the interaction further from the ambit of valid social contact, particularly if the officer uses a tone of voice not customary in social interactions. See Young, 135 Wash.2d at 512, 957 P.2d 681 (seizure may result from `use of language or tone of voice indicating that compliance with the officer's request might be compelled.' (quoting Mendenhall, 446 U.S. at 554-55, 100 S.Ct. 1870)). Reiber concedes he asked Harrington to remove his hands from his pockets in order to control Mr. Harrington's actions. VRP at 21.