N.D. Ill.: Defendant who showed up at the same time as a SWAT team to execute drug SW could be detained

Defendant’s detention at the scene of a search where he just showed up at that same time as fourteen officers to execute a search warrant was reasonable. Drug sales had occurred there that day. United States v. Banks, 628 F. Supp. 2d 811 (N.D. Ill. 2009):

The courts of appeals have offered several justifications for the rule that individuals who for whatever reason find themselves at the scene of an ongoing search are subject to at least a temporary detention by law enforcement officers. In Jennings, the Seventh Circuit found that in view of the entry of the defendant into the “security perimeter surrounding the apartment where the narcotics search was underway” and the “elevated risk of violence during a search for narcotics,” the officers “were reasonably concerned for their own and for [the defendant’s] safety, as well as for any activity that might compromise the search.” 544 F.3d at 818. Echoing the Seventh Circuit’s views, the Tenth Circuit has held that officers may detain individuals “whose presence at the scene raised a concern about interference with the search.” Sanchez, 555 F.3d at 918. The Sixth Circuit also has pointed to concerns about the defendant’s own safety as a factor justifying detention of an individual who approached a house in which armed officers were in the process of executing a search warrant. Bohannon, 225 F.3d at 617. And the Third Circuit, too, has found it “entirely reasonable” for officers to detain persons “standing in the middle of [a drug] raid,” at least “until the situation [is] under control.” Baker, 50 F.3d at 1191. As the Seventh Circuit summarized, “the officers’ interest in maintaining control inside their security perimeter until the SWAT team secured the targeted apartment for the search far outweighed [the defendant’s] interest in being left alone for the few moments that he was detained.” Jennings, 544 F.3d at 819.

The timing of an individual’s appearance on the scene of an ongoing police operation also bears on the reasonableness of the officers’ actions. In each of the most analogous decisions discussed by the parties in their briefs and at the hearing, the courts have agreed that persons who are present as the execution of the warrant commences are subject to at least temporary detention. See Jennings, 544 F.3d at 818-19; Bohannon, 225 F.3d at 617; Baker, 50 F.3d at 1190 (upholding detention of defendant who arrived on the scene “just as the police were initiating a drug raid”). Even Judge Batchelder, who dissented in Bohannon, agreed that authorities lawfully may “detain all persons who are on the premises to be searched when the police execute a search warrant.” 225 F.3d at 618 (Batchelder, J., dissenting). However, she felt that the detention was unlawful on the facts of that case because the defendant “arrived after the search had been substantially completed” and “the police already had complete control of the situation, many of the officers had already left the scene, and all that remained was the final paperwork.” Id.

On the basis of the decisions cited above, the Court has no difficulty in concluding that the temporary detention of Defendant on the porch of a residence where fourteen armed police officers were about to execute a valid narcotics search warrant comported with the Fourth Amendment. The Defendant arrived contemporaneously with the officers at a location where drug deals had taken place that very day.