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S.D.Cal.: Use of deadly force rather than spike strips did not make fleeing defendant's stop unreasonable

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

The use of deadly force instead of spike strips to stop the defendant who had run a roadblock and was trying to outrun the police did not make the search of him and his car when he was finally stopped unreasonable. The defendant fled and was driving erratically, and the use of force here was reasonable under the circumstances. United States v. Ramos, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 107292 (S.D. Cal. October 6, 2010) The Court must determine whether the agents reasonably believed that the force used was necessary in order to protect themselves based upon the totality of the circumstances. "To assess the reasonableness of th[e] conduct, [a court] must balance the nature and quality of the intrusion on the individual's Fourth Amendment interests against the importance of the governmental interests alleged to justify the intrusion paying careful attention to the facts and circumstances of each particular case...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on October 11, 2010 (boomark / email).