MD: Person approaching a house being searched with a warrant could be detained and frisked

Under Michigan v. Summers and Maryland cases, defendant approaching a house being searched under a warrant could be detained. An explicit threat is not required. Fields v. State, 203 Md. App. 132, 36 A.3d 1026 (2012):

Michigan v. Summers and other cases have established that, when executing a search warrant, police officers may reasonably detain persons found in and about the premises for reasons of safety and to secure the premises being searched. While the particular issue presented by this case, viz., that the person detained was walking towards the premises being searched, is a matter of first impression in this State, our conclusion that the police acted reasonably in detaining appellant is fully consistent with Maryland law and supported by persuasive decisions from other jurisdictions.

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We now return to the case before us. In his brief, Fields emphasizes that his initial interaction with the officers was cordial, so he could not reasonably have been perceived as a threat. He also points out that the officers left the house to meet him before he entered the premises, and implies that their action virtually eliminated him as a threat to the integrity of the ongoing search because he was stopped before actually reaching the house itself.

We are not persuaded that an apparently benign interaction removes the initial encounter in this case from the justifications set forth in Summers and Cotton. First, it is not at all clear that the officers “perceived” no threat. For example, Sergeant Thayer stated on cross-examination that “[t]here’s a possibility” that Fields might have “potentially” had a weapon. Additionally, Fields’s argument that he could not reasonably be perceived as a threat by the officers because he was in the yard, as opposed to at the house itself, is undermined by Williamson’s rejection of the argument that the defendant in that case could not have been a threat to the officers because he was departing the house.

More importantly, a person who is subjected to a limited detention pursuant to Summers may not dictate the contours of the police response simply on the basis of good behavior. Indeed, a “perceived” threat is not a prerequisite for the detention authorized by Summers; instead, “[t]he risk of harm to both the police and the occupants is minimized if the officers routinely exercise unquestioned command of the situation.” Summers, 452 U.S. at 702-03. Hence, the limited detention that is sanctioned by Summers does not depend on the presence of a threat, actual or perceived, to the officers executing the warrant.