Professor Jonathan Witmer-Rich was quoted in an article by Signal Cleveland, titled “He brought a gunshot victim to the Cleveland Clinic. Hospital police cuffed and detained him.” The article tells the story of Ibrahim Alim, who was detained by the Cleveland Clinic police when Alim dropped off a friend who had suffered a gunshot wound. The police also seized Alim’s car.

The article reports that the Cleveland Clinic has a policy directing police to detain any person who drops off a gunshot wound victim, without regard to the circumstances of the case.

Professor Witmer-Rich explained that this policy likely violates the Fourth Amendment:

To legally detain a person and their vehicle, police must reasonably suspect they are involved in criminal activity, said Jonathan Witmer-Rich, co-director of Cleveland State University’s Criminal Justice Center. Police officers have to assess each individual on a case-by-case basis, he added, looking for specific facts that show the person is involved in criminal activity.

But the Cleveland Clinic Police Department’s gunshot wound policy does not mention the standard of reasonable suspicion. As written, Witmer-Rich said it very likely violates the Fourth Amendment.

“The problem here is that this is a blanket policy,” Witmer-Rich said. “… And so a blanket policy that has you seize the car and the person every single time, I think, is not legitimate from a Fourth Amendment perspective.”