The most obvious example of being in custody, of course, is when the police say, "You are under arrest." But you might be in custody even if the police do not say, "You are under arrest." Generally, the law considers you in custody when you have been arrested or otherwise deprived of your freedom of movement in a significant way. This may occur when an officer is holding you at gunpoint or when several officers are surrounding you. Other examples are when you are in handcuffs or when the police have locked you in the backseat of a police car. There are no absolute rules on when a person is in custody--the test is whether a reasonable person in the circumstances would have felt free to leave the scene, and a court will consider all the circumstances.
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