SWAT team's detention of the plaintiff for a short period of time was reasonable under the circumstances and did not amount to a constitutional violation.

The plaintiff brought an action pursuant to 42 U.S.C.S. § 1983, alleging that the defendants, members of the Philadelphia SWAT team, were liable under the Fourth Amendment for unlawful seizure, false arrest, excessive force and failure to intervene. The plaintiff's Fourth Amendment claims failed as a matter of law because the plaintiff was only detained for a short period of time and in a reasonable manner; the defendants were executing a valid high-risk search warrant in the house he was occupying. The plaintiff's false arrest claim failed because the circumstances surrounding his detention did not rise to the level of an arrest and the plaintiff's detention did not suggest that the SWAT team unreasonably applied force to protect their personal safety. In the absence of demonstrating that any member of the SWAT team engaged in excessive force or committed another constitutional violation, the plaintiff also could not have succeeded on a claim of failure to intervene.

Case Law Alerts, 3rd Quarter 2013