Officers Detain Lawyer On His Own Property

[Music] welcome to audit the audit where we sort out the who and what in the right and wrong of police interactions this episode covers reasonable suspicion suspect identifications and commercial leases and is brought to us by the westerville police department you can find a link to the original video in the description below before we dive into the interaction i want to give a big thanks to the sponsor of this episode private internet access privacy is one of the many pillars of liberty and being in control of your digital footprint is a vital element of modern privacy every year digital privacy becomes increasingly more complex and impactful on our day-to-day lives and securing your internet traffic and browsing data is essential to ensuring your privacy is respected private internet access is one of the foremost vpn providers on the market with over 30 million downloads from all over the world they use world-class next-gen server infrastructure in over 75 countries meaning you get a secure reliable vpn connection anytime anywhere as it changes your ip address and reroutes your internet traffic through an encrypted tunnel private internet access hides your online activity from your internet service provider network administrator and government sensors and it's also the most customizable vpn on the market allowing you to make your vpn experience truly your own private internet access is available for all platforms and right now members of the ata community can use my link to get private internet access for two dollars and eight cents per month for the next three years with two months completely free with a 30-day money-back guarantee and a customer support team that's available 24 7 you have absolutely nothing to lose so click on the link in the description to take advantage of this exclusive offer now thanks again to private internet access for sponsoring this episode on july 10th 2021 civil rights attorney emanuel oluwale was moving some bags of trash from his vehicle to a dumpster behind his rented office in westerville ohio based on concerns of illegal dumping which a statement from the westerville chief of police suggests is a common reason for officer investigations officers dan ruth and matthew bauman of the westerville division of police pulled in behind mr olawale exited their vehicle and approached him hi there your office is here okay which office is it the law firm the what here's my business card okay sweet 160. okay all right i'll show you my id if you don't mind just so yeah if you don't mind can we see your id yeah pretty cool uh that's a slick uh business card all right i'll give it to him um you can keep doing what you're doing we're just again we're kind of concerned yeah seeing somebody dump a bunch of stuff there so i'll have you back no don't run it don't don't don't run my card no no my heidi huh don't run my id go run your id you have no reason to well we're going to at least mark it down we're going to take down your information after providing his identification to the officers to confirm his identity as a tenant of the office building mr olawale tells the officers not to run his id but the officers argued that they are within their authority to record his information for their incident report according to section 29 21.29 of the ohio revised code quote no person who is in a public place shall refuse to disclose the person's name address or date of birth when requested by a law enforcement officer who reasonably suspects the person is committing has committed or is about to commit a criminal offense it is likely that the officers had reasonable suspicion to initially detain mr olawale on suspicions of illegal dumping which is defined in section 3767.32 of the ohio revised code the statute states the quote no person without privilege to do so shall knowingly deposit litter in a litter receptacle located on any private property not owned by the person and explains that quote this section may be enforced by any sheriff deputy sheriff police officer of a municipal corporation or any other law enforcement officer within the law enforcement officer's jurisdiction however even though the stop was likely initially justified it is questionable whether the officers could constitutionally run a warrant check on mr oluwale after he provided them with his id in the 2015 case of rodriguez vs united states the supreme court held that because traffic stops are especially fraught with danger to police officers an officer may need to take certain quote negligibly burdensome precautions such as criminal record and outstanding warrant checks in order to complete their mission safely while the question of whether the officers had the authority to continue to detain mr olawale after he provided evidence that he was a tenant is a gray area that we will discuss later in this episode if a court concluded that the officers had reasonable suspicion to continue detaining him they would likely also determine that the officers had the authority to run his id as an officer safety precaution i'm on my property putting trash in mine okay but this is wait this is not just your property it's several people's property okay but i'm not violating no one said that you're inviting violating no no no don't run my heidi i'm a lawyer i know my rights okay i'm not violating any law i'm on my property there's no suspicion no one called anybody so don't run my id i only identified myself so that this will escalate that's fine but we can still mark down who we're out with and so that's what we're going to do no yeah this stop me just don't turn this into an issue sir you are turning this into an issue we're just simply marking down who we're out with yeah so he's just going to write it down on a piece just it's just your name why because sir we are out with you because we were concerned that you were illegally dumping but but you already discovered do you want me to show you my office i understand that you're here but i don't know if this dumpster belongs to you or somebody else in the in the belongs to me despite the fact that mr olawale offered the officer's evidence to show that he was not committing a crime the officers insist on writing down his name for their report supreme court precedent makes it clear that if the information discovered during an officer's tarry stop investigation including the evidence provided by the suspect dispels their reasonable suspicion they cannot continue to detain an individual for example in the 1984 case of berkemer vs mccarty the supreme court explained that police officers are within their authority to stop and identify citizens based on reasonable suspicion but quote the detainee is not obliged to respond and unless the detainee's answers provide the officer with probable cause to arrest him he must then be released unfortunately there is no bright line rule for when reasonable suspicion is dispelled and courts must make this determination on a case-by-case basis according to the totality of the circumstances although mr olawale offered proof that he was a tenant in the building as we will discuss later in this episode he did not provide proof that he was privileged to use the dumpster making it possible that a court could find that the officers were justified in continuing their investigation until they obtained evidence to dispel their suspicions however if a court concluded that mr oluwale had sufficiently dispelled the officer's suspicions the continuing encounter would become consensual and the officers would have no authority to detain mr olawale to run a warrant check as detailed in a law enforcement bulletin issued by the ohio attorney general if an officer takes the id and goes to the cruiser to run warrant checks they can convert a consensual encounter into an unlawful detention since a reasonable person would believe they were no longer free to leave while the officer has their id however as the bulletin goes on to explain if an individual consensually provides their id the officer can write down information from the id such as the name without triggering the fourth amendment therefore it is likely a court would find that the officers could constitutionally document mr oluwale's name after he provided his identification whether or not he was being detained to you and you alone yes can you prove that that dumpster belongs to you and you alone this dumpster belongs to the property okay that's money my stuff in there that's my point though is if it's also other units so what we belong to everybody we're paying for it doesn't really matter if it belongs to all the unit that's why it's giving me back my id thank you the officer suggests that the only dumpster area that is on a private lot shared by several different businesses may only be accessible to some tenants and implies that mr olawale may not have access to the dumpster despite renting space on the property while this seems like an unlikely scenario it is technically a legal possibility under ohio's commercial landlord tenant laws according to the westerville zoning map mr olawale's office is located in a mixed-use quote-unquote planned development or pd zone section 1162.04 of the codified westerville ordinances provides that on properties and pd zones quote trash and litter shall be controlled and stored in container systems which are located and enclosed in a manner to screen them from view on all sides however ohio law does not place a legal obligation on commercial landlords to provide their tenants with access to a dumpster or other trash container system as commercial tenants in ohio have very few rights outside of those established in the lease under section 5321.04 of the ohio revised code landlords are legally required to meet certain minimum standards such as providing trash receptacles and trash removal if four or more units are owned in the same building which cannot be waived in the lease on the other hand commercial tenants generally have no rights other than what is established in the lease agreement and landlords and tenants can freely negotiate whatever terms they would like as long as they are not illegal or contrary to public policy in fact one type of commercial lease known as a true triple net lease requires tenants to take responsibility for all of the property's expenses including utilities real estate taxes building insurance and maintenance given the vast discretion given to commercial landlords and tenants in negotiating lease terms in this situation it would be feasible for mr oluwale to rent an office but not have access to the dumpster however it is also possible that this line of questioning was merely a distraction tactic to keep mr oluwale busy while the other officer wrote down his information hi don't worry everything is under control and that's my wife okay that's fine do you want your card back yeah i understand you came to check but trying to run my id to find anything no that's illegal that is not illegal but okay you can finish stumping if you like all right just turn around get out of here and then we'll look him up after returning mr olawale's id the officers allowed him to leave and drove away the following day mr olawale posted about the situation on social media alleging that racial bias played a role in the encounter in response to the posts westerville police chief charles chandler requested that an investigation be initiated and the division published a web page that included a statement from chief chandler and body cam footage from both officers in his statement chief chandler concluded that quote the body-worn camera shows a professional and polite encounter between our officers and mr oluwabe and that the officer's behavior was quote completely in line with the expectations of wpd officers in a later interview mr oluwale stated that he would file an official complaint if he thought it would make a difference but since he believed the wpd statement was quote unquote tone death and that filing a complaint wouldn't make any difference he did not plan to do so overall the westerville officers get a b-minus because although much of their conduct was ethically questionable they remained within the bounds of their authority throughout the interaction and initiated the stop based on a legitimate reasonable suspicion departmental policy is a necessary element of any law enforcement organization and there are many reasons why a department might require their officers to document the citizens that they make contact with however policies like these often clash with the fourth amendment and leave citizens feeling as though their privacy was violated even though they committed no crimes it is difficult to rationalize the notion that identifying citizens who committed no crimes for the sake of departmental policy is a fair representation of protecting and serving the community and this mentality will likely produce many more constitutional conundrums if left unchecked there is a strong argument to be made that the officers were within their authority to continue investigating mr oluwale until they determined whether or not he had access to the dumpster in question however there is an equally compelling argument to be made that mr olawale had provided enough evidence to dispel any suspicions the officers may have had and it would certainly be interesting to see how a court would rule on this encounter ultimately the westerville officers allowed mr olawale to go free without pressing the issue any further but not before sacrificing mr olawale's sense of privacy to ensure that their stop was properly documented mr oluwale gets an a minus because although he willfully surrendered his id to the officers he remained relatively calm and collected throughout the encounter actively worked to dispel the officer's suspicions and respectfully challenged the conduct of the officers when mr olawale showed his id to the officers it appeared as though he only meant to present his id not surrender it into their possession and the officer's refusal to give his id back betrayed the forthcoming and compliant demeanor that mr olawale was initially attempting to convey despite this mr ulawale managed to compose himself and challenge the officer's conduct while maintaining a stern but level-headed attitude i commend mr olawale for remaining calm and compliant as he challenged the officers but i also believe that his initial unreserved compliance is what prompted the officers to continue investigating offering officers more information than what they're asking for is almost never a good idea and surrendering just enough detail to dispel an officer's suspicion without revealing sensitive information is an extremely difficult and circumstantial task by no means is there a situation where refusing to obey lawful orders or physically resisting arrest would be considered legal but this interaction is a great example of how being overly compliant can sometimes work against you let us know if there is an interaction or legal topic you would like us to discuss in the comments below thank you for watching and don't forget to check out my second channel for even more police interaction content [Music] you

Channel: Audit the Audit

Views: 1,824,785

Keywords: amagansett press, first amendment audit, 1st amendment audit, auditing america, news now california, sgv news first, high desert community watch, anselmo morales, photography is not a crime, san joaquin valley transparency, first amendment audit fail, walk of shame, news now houston, police fail, 1st amendment audit fail, public photography, auditor arrested, police brutality, highdesert community watch, pinac news, cops triggered, news now patrick, east hampton

Id: 3RHCyklH6zk

Length: 14min 29sec (869 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 23 2021