On June 4th 2012 Aurora Colorado police were chasing a bank robbery suspect. They narrowed his location to an intersection but did not have a description of his appearance. So they forcibly dragged everyone in 19 vehicles from their cars at gunpoint, handcuffed them, and detained 40 people for over two hours while they attempted to identify the suspect.
Police Chief Daniel Oates demonstrated his ignorance of the Fourth Amendment when he told CBS in Denver “the ends justify the means” after the illegal round-up snared a suspect. He described the mass detainment and handcuffing as lawful and necessary.
“The law is clear that investigative detentions are lawful for a reasonable period of time,” Oates said. “Reasonableness is determined by the facts and circumstances at issue, and the facts and circumstances were the suspect was in one of 19 cars.”
Oates then apologized to the innocent bystanders who were terrorized.
Probable cause under the Fourth Amendment is in effect when a person is detained or arrested and is not free to leave. Police can only detain a person when facts are sufficient to warrant an arrest or seizure of an individual. A person arrested without probable cause may sue the government and the police.
And so today….
COLORADO – A lawsuit recently filed in U.S. District Court alleges 28 motorists spent more than two hours in police detainment following a 2012 bank robbery in Aurora, Colo. The local police chief and several others are named in the lawsuit, alleging the widespread violation of the detainees’ constitutional rights.
When a white male suspect escaped from a nearby Wells Fargo bank after a robbery, police learned employees had slipped a GPS tracker in with the stolen cash. Authorities were able to estimate his location to an intersection and, according to the lawsuit, “immediately surrounded and barricaded all nineteen vehicles” in the area.
The tracker was reportedly unable to pinpoint the criminal’s specific vehicle, and police did not have a description from which to work. In response, court documents allege, law enforcement simply treated everyone in the vicinity – including children – as a criminal.
“They brandished shields and pointed assault rifles directly at innocent citizens, including children under ten years old,” the suit stated. “Officers with police dogs were at the ready. No one was free to leave.”
Since the closest FBI division was closed, local authorities reportedly had no access to more accurate trackers. The suit claims police paid special attention to individuals who they felt looked “nervous or anxious.”
Of course, virtually anyone in such a tense situation might display such visual cues. (read more)