Walk It Through: The Passenger
Somebody else's car, a hand on your jacket, a friend who cannot get out, the ground, a hook, and a sign that was not there last week.
A friend is driving you home. Lights behind. You are in the passenger seat and it is not your car.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.
This walkthrough covers a passenger's own position in a stop, the frisk of a person rather than of a car's interior, the framework for a force claim rather than any assessment of one, and the two kinds of tow. Whether something found in the car is attributed to a passenger, whether Title II applies during an arrest at all, whether any particular use of force was reasonable, whether the city is immune, and what a specific tow yard charges are questions it does not answer; the first four are for a licensed Ohio attorney and the last is set locally.
A practice walkthrough, not a prediction of how any real one will go. Legal information, not legal advice.
Words this turns on
21 words · tap one for its definition
Terms with a legal meaning that is narrower than the everyday one. Each links to the definition and the authority behind it.
Show all 21 words
- ConsentVoluntary agreement to a search, judged on the totality of the circumstances. Valid consent removes the need for a warrant and for probable cause.
- FriskA pat of the outer clothing for weapons, allowed during a lawful stop when the officer has reasonable suspicion that the person is armed and dangerous. It is a search for weapons, not for evidence.
- Plain feelDuring a lawful weapons frisk, an object whose identity as contraband is immediately apparent from the pat itself may be seized. The knowledge has to come from the lawful pat, not from manipulating the object.
- Probable causeFacts that would lead a reasonable person to believe a crime has been committed and that this person committed it. It is the threshold for an arrest and for a search warrant.
- Reasonable suspicionSpecific facts an officer can put into words that point to a particular person being involved in a particular crime. It is the threshold for a brief investigative stop.
- Accessible to the operatorThe phrase that decides most vehicle firearm cases. Improperly handling firearms in a motor vehicle turns on whether a loaded firearm was accessible to the operator or a passenger without leaving the vehicle.
- Investigative detentionA brief seizure of a person on reasonable suspicion, lasting only as long as it takes to confirm or dispel that suspicion. The person is not free to leave, and is not under arrest either.
- Seizure of a personThe moment a person is no longer free to leave, by physical force or by a show of authority they submit to. Everything the Fourth Amendment requires starts counting from that moment.
- CustodyFormal arrest, or a restraint on freedom of movement of the degree associated with a formal arrest. It is the condition that, combined with questioning, triggers the Miranda warnings.
- Inventory searchA catalog of the contents of an impounded vehicle, carried out under standard department procedure rather than on suspicion. Anything found is not excluded simply because nobody had probable cause.
- Direct threatA significant risk to the health or safety of others that cannot be eliminated or reduced by a reasonable modification. Where one exists, the modification is not required.
- Effective communicationThe requirement that a public entity communicate with a person with a disability as effectively as it communicates with anyone else, furnishing auxiliary aids and services where they are needed. The entity must give primary consideration to what the person asks for.
- Qualified interpreterThe interpreter a court appoints where a party or witness cannot readily understand or communicate because of a hearing, speech or other impairment. The appointment is the court's duty rather than something that has to be requested.
- Reasonable modificationA change to a policy, practice or procedure that a public entity must make where the change is needed to avoid discriminating on the basis of disability. A police department is a public entity.
- AdverseUse of land without the owner's permission, which is the element of adverse possession that permission destroys. The claimants in the leading case had asked the owner's leave to use the strip, and the court held that asking was the opposite of adverse.
- Private tow away zonePrivate property the owner has designated for towing by posting a sign of at least eighteen by twenty four inches, visible from every entrance, saying the property is a tow away zone and describing who may park there.
- Sealing and expungementStatutory routes to restrict or destroy the record of a case. Sealing closes the record to most viewers; expungement is the destruction of it. Eligibility depends on the offense and on time elapsed.
- Deadly forceForce likely to cause death or serious physical harm. Against a fleeing person it is unreasonable unless the officer has probable cause to believe that person poses a significant threat of death or serious physical injury.
- Objective reasonablenessThe standard for force used during a stop or an arrest. Judged from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene at the moment, weighing the severity of the offense, any immediate threat, and whether the person was resisting or fleeing.
- Qualified immunityA defense protecting an official sued individually unless the right they violated was clearly established at the time, meaning existing precedent had put the question beyond debate.
- Under color of state lawThe condition that makes a federal civil rights claim available. Somebody exercising power they have because of their public office, whether or not they were following the rules of that office.