Opinion ID: 2972527
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Seizure of the bikes

Text: This incident also involves the seizure of the plaintiffs’ bikes. One of the bikes appears to have been plaintiff Mitchell’s birthday present from his father and the other bike appears to have been pieced together from spare parts by plaintiff Simpson. The officers allege that each of the youths disclaimed ownership of the bikes, but viewing the facts in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs, we cannot agree with the officers. After stopping the plaintiffs, and because of their alleged suspicions, the officers called in the bike’s serial numbers into the LIEN system and found that they had not been reported stolen. Nonetheless, the officers claim that conflicting explanations, coupled with the officers’s knowledge of recent bike thefts from that area, provided “reasonable suspicion and probable cause” to seize the bikes. The record does not support this claim when the facts are viewed in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs. For example, plaintiff Mitchell, whose birthday present was seized, testified at his deposition that he was scared and the officers did not speak directly to him, and therefore he never asserted ownership of his bike. The officers still confiscated all of the bikes, possibly gave the youths property tags for the bikes, and said the bikes could be picked up from the police station with proof of ownership or a statement from a parent or guardian regarding ownership. This Court is limited to determining whether the facts, when viewed in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs, make out a recoverable Fourth Amendment claim — here they do, and therefore summary judgment was inappropriate. The facts, viewed in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs, would support a finding that the officers did not have probable cause to believe the bikes were stolen and therefore did not have probable cause to seize the bikes. After running the serial numbers through the LIEN system and learning that the bikes were not reported stolen, the officers would have to proffer some facts to demonstrate that they had probable cause to seize the bikes — facts sufficient to warrant a person of reasonable caution in the belief that a crime is being or has been committed. See, e.g., Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132, 161-62 (1925). The plaintiffs’ deposition testimony indicates that one of the bikes was Mitchell’s birthday present and the other was pieced together from spare parts. A check of the LIEN system did nothing to cast doubt on the youths’ story, and provided no indication that the bikes were stolen. The officers’ “hunch” that the stories were inconsistent or that the bikes looked too new, does not rise to the level of probable cause sufficient to effectuate a permanent seizure of personal property. This does not end the inquiry. In general, seizures of property require probable cause. United States v. Place, 462 U.S. 696, 701 (1983). As with brief detentions of the person, i.e., Terry stops, however, the Supreme Court “has recognized that some brief detentions of personal effects may be permitted based upon reasonable suspicion falling short of probable cause, provided that such detentions are ‘minimally intrusive.’” Farm Labor Org. Comm. v. Ohio State Highway Patrol, 308 F.3d 523, 543-44 (6th Cir. 2002) (emphasis added) (quoting Place, 462 U.S. at 706). This Court has explained that “‘seizures of personal effects when based on anything less than probable cause’ are permitted only to the extent that they satisfy the standards for reasonableness applicable to No. 03-2204 Bennett, et al. v. City of Eastpointe, et al. Page 11 ‘Terry-type investigative detentions.’” Farm Labor, 308 F.3d at 544 (quoting United States v. Saperstein, 723 F.2d 1221, 1231 (6th Cir. 1983)). This Terry-like inquiry for determining whether a seizure based upon less than probable cause is constitutional involves two steps. “First, the Court must determine whether the detaining officer has a reasonable and articulable suspicion that the property he wishes to seize is connected with criminal activity,” id. (quoting Sanders, 719 F.2d at 887), and “[s]econd, the scope of the seizure must be reasonable, both in duration and in intrusiveness,” id. (citing Place, 462 U.S. at 709). As for the second prong, this Court has stated that to determine whether “there is reasonable suspicion, the Court must then ascertain whether the detention is reasonable, that is, (1) was it sufficiently limited in time, and (2) were the investigative means used the least intrusive means reasonably available.” Sanders, 719 F.2d at 887 (internal quotation marks omitted). We therefore engage in the Farm Labor analysis to determine whether the seizure, based on reasonable suspicion alone, was constitutional. Assuming the officers had reasonable suspicion to believe the bikes were stolen, even in light of the clean LIEN check, the inquiry also requires determining whether the seizure was sufficiently limited in time and whether the investigative means were the least intrusive. Id. In Place, the Supreme Court held that a ninety-minute detention of the defendant’s luggage was unreasonable in duration. Place, 462 U.S. at 709. The Court noted that in determining whether a Fourth Amendment violation has occurred, it is necessary to balance the government interest in the temporary seizure against the individual’s interest in avoiding the intrusion. Id. at 703. In Place, the governmental interest was in preventing the transportation of narcotics and the ninety-minute detention was to arrange for a dog sniff of the luggage. Id. The Court found that the government’s interest was substantial, but despite the substantial government interest, the detention for ninety minutes was unreasonable without probable cause. Id. at 709. The Court noted that the constitutional violation was complete based on the unreasonable detention, but further exacerbated by the agent’s failure to tell the defendant where they were taking the luggage, how long they would keep it, and how it would be returned to him. Id. at 710. Furthermore, in Farm Labor, this Court found the seizure of the motorists’ green cards for four days to be unreasonable and therefore unconstitutional. Farm Labor, 308 F.3d 544-48. The district court found and this Court agreed that only one day or less was needed for the officer to contact and receive verification from the INS as to the card’s authenticity. Id. at 546-47. In looking to the permissible time limitation for a seizure based on less than probable cause, the Supreme Court has not adopted a per se time limitation, but rather has “emphasized the need to consider the law enforcement purposes to be served by the stop as well as the time reasonably needed to effectuate those purposes.” United States v. Sharpe, 470 U.S. 675, 685 (1985). We see little, if any, investigative need for confiscating the bikes in this case. The defendants assert no investigative rationale for the seizure, though the district court stated that the bikes were confiscated “to do a more thorough investigation when [the officers] returned to the station.” There is no indication, however, that the officers ever investigated further. Having already run the LIEN check and asserting no additional investigative rationale, it appears to us that the officers seized the bikes for no justifiable purpose. This is made even clearer by the fact that the officers told the youths that they could come claim the bikes at any time, presumably immediately, as long as they brought their parents along or provided some other proof of ownership. The fact that the officers were willing to immediately turn over the bikes to a parent or to the youths upon proof of ownership demonstrates no urgent or specific law-enforcement interest in seizing the bikes. If the officers had taken the bikes, immediately gone to the station, and engaged in a more comprehensive investigation into the ownership of the bikes, and then, finding no indicia of criminal wrongdoing, returned the bikes to the youths, there might not be any constitutional violation. In United States v. Sharpe, the Supreme Court emphasized, as it had explained in Place, that “in No. 03-2204 Bennett, et al. v. City of Eastpointe, et al. Page 12 assessing the effect of the length of the detention, we take into account whether the police diligently pursued their investigation.” 470 U.S. at 685 (quoting Place, 462 U.S. at 709). Thus, it is “appropriate to examine whether the police diligently pursued a means of investigation that was likely to confirm or dispel their suspicions quickly, during which time it was necessary to detain the defendant” or his property. Sharpe, 470 U.S. at 686. Moreover, “the brevity of the invasion of the individual’s Fourth Amendment interests” is key in determining whether a seizure can be justified on reasonable suspicion. Sharpe, 470 U.S. at 685 (citations omitted and emphasis added). The brevity or length of the detention is a flexible concept and needs to be evaluated in light of the law enforcement needs “as well as the time reasonably needed to effectuate those purposes.” Id. Here, the officers have provided no explanation of the law-enforcement needs, nor any indication of the time necessary to confiscate bikes to conduct a more detailed investigation. Furthermore, the fact that the officers may have given the youths property claim tags does not cure the constitutional violation. In Place, the Court held that the ninety-minute detention was unreasonable and therefore unconstitutional, but that the violation itself was “exacerbated” by the failure of the officers “to accurately inform respondent of the place to which they were transporting his luggage, of the length of time he might be dispossessed, and of what arrangements would be made for return of the luggage if the investigation dispelled the suspicion.” Place, 462 U.S. at 710. While the possible presence of property tags here may have prevented such exacerbation, the officers still made no provision for returning the bikes “if the investigation dispelled the suspicion.” Id. The officers essentially reversed the onus under the Fourth Amendment and placed the burden on the youths to demonstrate that the bikes were not stolen, whereas the burden, under the Fourth Amendment, is on law enforcement to justify its intrusions. It is not up to individuals to demonstrate the absence of criminal activity; rather, it is up to law enforcement, if they have appropriate suspicions, to investigate and confirm or dispel those suspicions. Permanently keeping the bikes and selling them at auction based on meager reasonable suspicion here violates the Fourth Amendment. We therefore reverse and remand this claim against defendant-officers Murdock, Deal, and Magrita for further proceedings. For the same reasons as in Incident # 1, we affirm the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of Chiefs DeWeese and Danbert, as well as the City of Eastpointe to the extent the plaintiffs have alleged a Fourth Amendment claim against those parties. Officers Murdock’s, Deal’s, and Magrita’s searches of plaintiffs Mitchell, Johnson, Simpson, and Posey, and the seizure of the bikes, at least as the plaintiffs allege it took place, do not warrant qualified immunity, as it would constitute a search and seizure that is unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment and would be an objectively unreasonable search and seizure by a police officer that would not entitle the officer to qualified immunity. See Terry, 392 U.S. at 27; Place, 462 U.S. at 709; Farm Labor, 308 F.3d 544-48.