CA1: Miranda warnings do not apply to Terry stops

Officers had reasonable suspicion of credit card fraud from three men in an SUV who came into the store one at a time. The first used a credit card successfully for a video game system, but the second had a card in the same name that was declined. The third came in asking about video game systems, and the store employee sent them to another store. Police got the call and found them at the other store. When confronted by the police, two of the defendants disavowed any privacy interest in it, so they lacked standing. Finally, Miranda warnings do not apply to Terry stops. United States v. Campbell, 741 F.3d 251 (1st Cir. 2013):

In determining whether a person detained at a vehicular stop should have been given Miranda warnings, the Supreme Court and the courts of appeals have followed the principles that we just have articulated. In Berkemer v. McCarty, 468 U.S. 420, 440 (1984), for instance, the Supreme Court held that Miranda warnings are not required during routine stops involving traffic matters. The Court acknowledged that a traffic stop is a “seizure” for Fourth Amendment purposes because “few motorists would feel free either to disobey a directive to pull over or to leave the scene of a traffic stop without being told they might do so.” Id. at 436-37. The Court distinguished traffic stops from the setting that occurs in Miranda—jailhouse interrogations. Id. at 437-39. “[C]ircumstances associated with the typical traffic stop are not such that the motorist feels completely at the mercy of the police.” Id. at 438. Traffic stops are usually temporary and brief. Id. at 437-38. They are public, which “both reduces the ability of an unscrupulous policeman to use illegitimate means to elicit self-incriminating statements and diminishes the motorist’s fear that, if he does not cooperate, he will be subjected to abuse.” Id. at 438. Typically each motorist is confronted by only one or two policemen. Id. All of this combines to make a traffic stop “substantially less police dominated” than “the kinds of interrogation at issue in Miranda itself.” Id. at 439 (internal quotation marks omitted). Traffic stops are “comparatively nonthreatening,” and therefore do not require Miranda warnings to counter the threat of coercion. Id. at 440.

Notably, despite its holding that, generally, law enforcement officers are not required to give Miranda warnings at traffic stops, the Court established no categorical rule. Indeed, it held that Miranda warnings would be required “as soon as a suspect’s freedom of action is curtailed to a ‘degree associated with formal arrest.'” Id. (quoting Beheler, 463 U.S. at 1125). Thus, our task post-Berkemer is to determine whether the facts of a specific case indicate a situation more akin to a routine traffic stop, at which Miranda warnings are not required, or indicate that a suspect has been “subjected to restraints comparable to those associated with a formal arrest,” at which point Miranda warnings are required. Id. at 441. In understanding this analysis, we begin by noting that the Court has held that a traffic stop is analogous to a Terry stop and, therefore, “that persons temporarily detained pursuant to such stops are not ‘in custody’ for the purposes of Miranda.” Id. at 440. In the course of its opinion, the Supreme Court also noted “the absence of any suggestion in [its] opinions that Terry stops are subject to the dictates of Miranda” due to “[t]he comparatively nonthreatening character of detentions of this sort.” Id.

In focusing on Terry stops, we also have recognized that, as “a general rule, Terry stops do not implicate the requirements of Miranda, because Terry stops, though inherently somewhat coercive, do not usually involve the type of police dominated or compelling atmosphere which necessitates Miranda warnings.” United States v. Streifel, 781 F.2d 953, 958 (1st Cir. 1986) (internal quotation marks omitted). More recently, in United States v. Fornia-Castillo, 408 F.3d 52 (1st Cir. 2005), we have reiterated that general approach while observing, as the Supreme Court did in Berkemer, that a valid investigatory stop can “escalate into custody” for Miranda purposes “where the totality of the circumstances shows that a reasonable person would understand that he was being held to ‘the degree associated with a formal arrest.'” Id. at 63 (quoting Stansbury v. California, 511 U.S. 318, 322 (1994) (per curiam)). While no “scientifically precise formula” can determine whether a Terry stop rises to the level of a formal arrest, United States v. Trueber, 238 F.3d 79, 93 (1st Cir. 2001) (internal quotation marks omitted), the “ultimate inquiry” is whether there was “a formal arrest or restraint on freedom of movement of the degree associated with a formal arrest.” Thompson v. Keohane, 516 U.S. 99, 112 (1995) (internal quotation marks omitted). Keeping in mind that the test is an objective one, Stansbury, 511 U.S. at 323, we focus (without limitation) on four factors: (1) “whether the suspect was questioned in familiar or at least neutral surroundings”; (2) “the number of law enforcement officers present at the scene”; (3) “the degree of physical restraint placed upon the suspect”; and (4) “the duration and character of the interrogation.” Hughes, 640 F.3d at 435 (internal quotation marks omitted).