ABSTRACT
CAPSULE: The test to determine whether a police-citizen encounter on a bus is a seizure is whether, taking into account all the circumstances, a reasonable passenger would feel free to decline the officers’ requests or otherwise terminate the encounter. FACTS: Without any suspicion and with the intention of catching drug smugglers, two uniformed law enforcement officers boarded a bus in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, that was en route from Miami to Atlanta. The officers approached Bostick and asked for identification and his bus ticket. The officers then asked Bostick for consent to search his bag and told Bostick he could refuse consent. Bostick consented to the search of his luggage and cocaine was found. He later sought to suppress the evidence in court, alleging that it was improperly seized. ISSUE: Did the police conduct in this case constitute a seizure of Bostick under the Fourth Amendment, such that he felt compelled to consent to the officers’ request? NO. SUPREME COURT DECISION: “The Florida Supreme Court erred in adopting a per se rule that every encounter on a bus is a seizure. The appropriate test is whether, taking into account all of the circumstances surrounding the encounter, a reasonable passenger would feel free to decline the officers’ requests or otherwise terminate the encounter.” REASON: “Our cases make it clear that a seizure does not occur simply because a police officer approaches an individual and asks a few questions. So long as a reasonable person would feel free ‘to disregard the police and go about his business,’ the encounter is consensual and no reasonable suspicion is required. The encounter will not trigger Fourth Amendment scrutiny unless it loses its consensual nature.”
