Opinion ID: 504895
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Routine Citizenship Checks at Fixed Checkpoints

Text: 22 Routine citizenship checks at fixed checkpoints are characterized by the same two features important to Berkemer 's holding that an ordinary traffic stop does not render a motorist in custody. First, traffic stops are presumptively temporary and brief. Berkemer, 468 U.S. at 437, 104 S.Ct. at 3149. 23 The vast majority of roadside detentions last only a few minutes. A motorist's expectations, when he sees a policeman's light flashing behind him, are that he will be obliged to spend a short period of time answering questions and waiting while the officer checks his license and registration, that he may then be given a citation, but that in the end he most likely will be allowed to continue on his way. 24 Id. Stationhouse interrogation, on the other hand, frequently may be prolonged and a reasonable person might expect questioning to continue until he provides his interrogators the answers they seek. Id. at 437-38, 104 S.Ct. at 3149. Second, traffic stops are less police dominated than stationhouse interrogations. Id. at 438-39, 104 S.Ct. at 3149-50. The public nature of traffic stops reduces the hazard that police might resort to overbearing means to elicit incriminating responses and diminishes the motorist's fear of abuse by the police if he fails to cooperate. Id. at 438, 104 S.Ct. at 3149. That no more than one or two police officers usually participate in a traffic stop also mitigates a motorist's sense of vulnerability. Id. 25 A routine checkpoint stop involves brief detention, limited questioning and possibly production of a relevant document. 24 The degree of restraint associated with arrest is more enduring and less circumspect. A fixed checkpoint mitigates the subjective fear a reasonable person might otherwise experience when their vehicle is stopped by border patrol agents. Id. at 558-59, 96 S.Ct. at 3083. Fixed checkpoints do not take travelers by surprise as they know, or may obtain knowledge of, the location of checkpoints and will not be stopped elsewhere. Id. at 559, 96 S.Ct. at 3083. The law enforcement presence at a fixed checkpoint actually assuages the reasonable person's perception of restraint: The regularized manner in which established checkpoints are operated is visible evidence, reassuring to law-abiding motorists, that the stops are duly authorized and believed to serve the public interest. Id. Even for those travelers directed to secondary inspection points, [t]he objective intrusion of the stop and inquiry ... remains minimal. Id. at 560, 96 S.Ct. at 3084. Like a traffic stop, routine citizenship checks usually take place in the view of other travelers and are usually conducted by one or two officers. Routine citizenship checks at fixed checkpoints do not impose a degree of restraint associated with arrest because the detention is by nature brief and subject to the scrutiny of other travelers, the intrusion is limited in scope, advance notice obtains and visible signs of authority mitigate rather than enhance the perceived degree of restraint. Bengivenga therefore was not in custody at the time Agent Santana questioned her on the bus.