UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS

EASTERN DIVISION

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ) 

 ) 

 v. ) Case No. 20-cr-247-1 

 ) 

ROLAND BLACK ) Hon. Steven C. Seeger 

____________________________________) 

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

Roland Black got into a car accident with another driver on the streets of Chicago. The 

collision brought together two drivers who should not have been driving at all. Black had a 

warrant out for his arrest. The other driver had a suspended license. 

Given that reality, one might think that the two drivers would want to keep things on the 

down low, and resolve the situation between themselves. Attracting the attention of law 

enforcement may not have been the best idea. Maybe they could have exchanged information, 

called it a day, and gone on their way. 

Black had other ideas. He decided to get the police involved. He flagged down nearby 

officers from the Chicago Police Department and asked for their help with the fender bender. 

That decision was risky, and not just because of the active warrant. As it turns out, Black was a 

convicted felon with a loaded handgun in his car.

So a convicted felon with a handgun and a warrant out for his arrest waved at the police 

and asked them to lend a hand. The police did more than lend a hand. It did not take much 

detective work for the police to figure out that a warrant was out for Black’s arrest. 

The officers promptly placed Black under arrest. At that point, the police needed to 

figure out what to do with his car. He didn’t have any passengers, and no one else was on hand 

to drive the vehicle. And Black’s car couldn’t stay where it was. 

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After the accident, Black pulled his car to the side of the road, in a metered parking spot, 

but the car was not legally parked. He put the car a few feet from the curb. So the car was 

across the white line on the side of the road, and was sticking out in the street. 

The police decided to tow the car. Before impounding the vehicle, an officer performed a 

brief search. And before long, the officer located the loaded handgun in the center console

between the driver’s seat and the front passenger seat. 

That discovery led to charges in state court, and led to the case at hand, too. Black was 

charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). 

Black, in turn, moved to suppress the firearm recovered during the search of his car. 

For the following reasons, Defendant’s motion to suppress is denied.

Background

The Court summarizes the facts based on the material in the record, including the bodyworn cameras and testimony given at a suppression hearing in state court. A district court can 

make factual findings when ruling on a motion to suppress. See United States v. Cole, 21 F.4th 

421, 427 (7th Cir. 2021) (en banc); United States v. Gholston, 1 F.4th 492, 496 (7th Cir. 2021).

On February 11, 2017, Defendant Roland Black was driving a gray Lexus SUV on 35th 

Street in Chicago. See State Mtn. to Suppress Transcript, at 11:14-19 (Dckt. No. 26-1). He got 

in a fender bender with another driver, who rear-ended Black’s car. 

By the look of things from the video, there wasn’t much noticeable damage to Black’s 

car. Maybe there was some damage to the back of the car, but it wasn’t smashed up. It was 

drivable, too. The other car had a banged-up hood. The accident was a bumper buster, at most. 

Black and the other driver then flagged down Officers Giesel and Clay from the Chicago 

Police Department to assist with the accident. Id. at 7:9 – 8:10. At the time, both cars were in 

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the middle of 35th Street. Id. 8:9-12. The officers told them to move their cars to the side of 

35th Street. Id. at 9:10-17, 12:2-7. 

Black moved his car from the middle of 35th Street and put it on the side of the road. A 

parking spot was there for the taking. A spot was open right next to a parking meter. The bodycamera footage shows the tall black box used to pay for parking, with the large “P” in a green 

circle. See Giesel Video, at 0:14, 1:04.0F

1

 All Black had to do was parallel park. 

But Black did not do the world’s best parking job. Far from it. He parked the car largely

– but not entirely – in a parking spot with a meter. The car was over the line and in the road. See

State Mtn. to Suppress Transcript, at 31:7-8, 32:6-11, 34:23 – 35:4, 35:21 – 36:5, 37:6-23, 42:13-

15 (Dckt. No. 26-1). 

When Black was done parking, the officers asked him for his driver’s license. Id. at 

12:2-7, 13:17-21. That’s when Black’s day went from bad to worse.

The police quickly saw that Black had an active warrant out for his arrest. Id. at 13:13-

24. The officers verified the warrant and then arrested Black. Id. at 15:2-8, 21:22 – 22:3. 

While searching Black incident to arrest, the officers found a large quantity of cash on his 

person. See Giesel Video, at 2:06-40. The videos show the officers pulling out huge wads of 

cash, totaling more than $5,000.1F

2

 See Incident Report (Dckt. No. 46-2, at 4 of 4). They pulled 

out bundle after bundle, prompting expletives from the police. See Giesel Video, at 2:06-40. 

1

 The government submitted a CD to the Clerk’s Office with the video from the body-worn cameras. See 

Dckt. Nos. 44, 45. 

2 The officers learned that Black had an active warrant for his arrest. The Incident Report reveals that the 

warrant was for unlawful delivery of a controlled substance. See Incident Report (Dckt. No. 46-2, at 4 of 

4). The Court does not know if the arresting officers knew the nature of the warrant at the time of his 

arrest (as opposed to later, when an officer wrote the Incident Report). At the beginning of the videos, 

one of the officers informed Black that there was a warrant out for his arrest. Black responded: “For 

what?” See Giesel Video, at 0:32-37. The officer responded: “I don’t know what, but you got a warrant, 

man.” Id. Even so, the government does not argue that the nature of the warrant – and the discovery of 

over $5,000 in cash on Black’s person – created probable cause to search the car. 

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Officer Clay patted down Black and found the keys to his car. See Clay Video, at 2:12-

16. The officer asked Black whether his car was “still drivable ’cause it has to come to the 

station.” Id. at 2:15-18.

Meanwhile, the officers also learned that other driver was driving on a suspended driver’s 

license. See Giesel Video, at 0:39-42. So he wound up at the police station, too. 

After placing Black under arrest, the officers needed to figure out what to do with his car. 

Black did not have a passenger in the car, and no one else was on the scene to take the keys and 

drive the car. 

The car could not stay where it was. Black put his car on the side of the road, but the car 

was too far from the curb. The car was over the white line and in the street, blocking part of the 

bike path. 

Maybe Black was nervous or flustered because the police were on hand. Maybe he was 

in a hurry. Or maybe he thought that the parking spot was temporary. Whatever the reason, 

Black pulled his car to the side of the road, but did not pull off the parallel parking. 

By the look of things, Black angled-in to the parking spot, and simply left it crooked. 

The front half of the car was closer to the curb than the back half of the car. The back right tire 

(on the passenger side) was several feet from the curb. The back left tire (behind the driver) was 

over the white line. 

The white line creates a bright line when it comes to lawful parking. If you’re not inside 

the white line, you’re in the street. And if you’re parked in the street, you’re parked unlawfully.

The body-camera footage shows the parking job. The back wheel on the driver’s side 

was hanging over the white line marking the parallel parking area from the roadway. The video 

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includes lots of images showing Black’s car over the line and on the street. See, e.g., id. at 0:38-

40, 1:26-31, 2:27, 2:54, 3:13, 4:47. Here is an example:

Id. at 1:26.

Take a look at another screenshot from the body-camera footage, from a different angle. 

To get a sense of the distance, compare the width of the wheel to the distance between the wheel 

and the curb. If the width of the wheel were a unit of measurement, Black’s car appears to be at 

least two wheel-widths away from the curb, or maybe more:

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Id. at 2:27. On the left, the white line is under the car. On the right, the tire is far from the curb. 

Notice that the pavement in the parking area has two color tones. The street is paved 

with asphalt, and the curb is concrete. The asphalt is a darker color, and the concrete is a lighter 

color. The color differences help to show that the back tire was a couple feet from the curb.2F

3

3

 Notice the concrete area between the elevated curb and the asphalt street (meaning the flat surface on 

the side of the road, before the curb rises to the sidewalk) (sometimes, gutters are there). In Chicago, 

based on some experiments by clerks with tape measures, that flat concrete area is usually about a foot 

wide, or a little more. So, to park within 12 inches from the curb – meaning the elevated concrete – a car 

needs to be pretty close if not next to the flat concrete surface. That is, a car needs to be by the edge of 

the (black) asphalt. The asphalt begins about a foot away from the curb. 

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Consider the same car from one more angle. This image shows Black standing by a 

parking meter, staring at his car as it stood several feet from the curb:

See Clay Video, at 2:02.

The footage shows that the front end of Black’s car appears closer to the curb than the 

rear end of the car. Compare id. at 0:38-40, 1:26-31, 3:13, with id. at 4:47. So, it appears that 

Black angled the front end of the car toward the curb as he was parking, but he didn’t take the 

time to straighten things out. 

By way of comparison, the other driver appears to have legally parked his car. One of 

the body-worn cameras includes a shot of the other driver’s car. See Giesel Video, at 4:51. 

Unlike Black’s car, the other driver’s vehicle was off the road, and well within the white line on 

the side of the street:

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Id.

By the look of things, Black’s car was not merely in the street. The back of the car was 

over the line and in a bike path. As the government points out, the body-camera footage includes 

an image looking down the street. And it appears to show a painted symbol for a bike path. Id.

at 4:56. That conclusion is consistent with a picture of the street from Google maps. See Gov’t 

Supp. Resp., at 3 (Dckt. No. 47).3F

4

 

4

 As Defendant rightly points out, the City of Chicago has different designations for different types of 

areas for bicycles. See Black Add’l Supp. Resp., at 3–7 (Dckt. No. 46). A “bike lane” is different than a 

“marked shared lane,” which is different than a “contraflow bike lane” and a “bicycle priority lane.” See 

generally https://chicagocompletestreets.org/streets/bikeways/other-bikeways/ (last viewed Sept. 11, 

2023) (“Other Bikeways consist of bike lanes, marked-shared lanes, contraflow bike lanes and bicycle 

priority lanes. Bike lanes are striped, on-street lanes with a bicycle symbol and an arrow. Marked shared 

lanes are not striped but show the bicycle symbol and a chevron; they are typically installed when there is 

not enough width for a full bike lane. Contraflow bike lanes are designated bike lanes marked to allow 

bicyclists to travel against the flow of motor vehicle traffic on a one-way street. Bicycle priority lanes are 

a shared lane treatment designed by a shared lane marking outlined with dashed lines in the middle of a 

travel lane.”) (showing pictures, too). Here, the images of 35th Street show the bike symbol, but no 

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Testimony confirmed what this Court can see with its own eyes. During a suppression 

hearing in state court (more on that later), one of the arresting officers (Officer Giesel) testified 

that Black parked over the line. “The wheels of the vehicle were over the line, so they were in 

the road and not in a parking spot.” See State Mtn. to Suppress Transcript, at 31:7-8 (Dckt. No. 

26-1). The officer also testified that “[t]here’s marked lines on the road, and you’re supposed to 

park within those lines. If you don’t park within those lines, you’re in the road.” Id. at 32:9-11; 

see also id. at 37:20-23 (“In this situation, there’s a marked parking spot by a solid white line, 

and you’re supposed to park within the white line. Outside of that line is in the road.”).

Putting these facts together, and based on the record as a whole, the Court makes the 

following factual findings. Based on the video and the testimony, Black parked his car on the 

side of the road, but he did not lawfully park his vehicle. The car was not inside the white line 

separating the road from the parking spots by the parking meter. Instead, the car was over the 

line and on the street, at least in part. It was in a bike path, too. Black parked his car more than 

12 inches from the curb, and then some. 

Black’s car crossed a line, literally and figuratively. 

So the officers encountered a driver (Black) who needed to go into custody, and who put 

his car where it couldn’t be. The car needed to move because it couldn’t stay where it couldn’t 

be. 

Officer Giesel then revealed that the police planned to tow the cars. He announced: 

“both cars are probably gonna have to come with us. I think. We’re gonna figure this out right 

now. But the car might have to come with us.” See Giesel Video, at 3:19-27.

separate striped on-street lanes (meaning white lines on each side, marking a bikers-only area). So, the 

area was a “marked shared lane” because both bikes and cars could use it. At the end of the day, it is a 

distinction without a difference. The Municipal Code prohibits parking in a bike path or a bike lane, and 

authorizes the towing of any vehicle that violates the rule. See Chicago Mun. Code § 9-40-060(a)(2), (3). 

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Officer Giesel repeated the point about the other motorist’s car. He said: “The car is 

probably gonna have to come with us to the district.” Id. at 4:06-10.

Before moving the vehicle, officers briefly searched Black’s car. Before long, Officer 

Giesel found a loaded handgun in the center console, right next to the driver’s seat. Id. at 5:18-

21. He located the weapon in roughly twenty-two seconds. Id. at 4:56 – 5:18. The gun had 11 

rounds, including one in the chamber. See Incident Report (Dckt. No. 46-2). 

Officers later drove Black’s car to the police station. See State Mtn. to Suppress 

Transcript, at 17:15 – 24:36 (Dckt. No. 26-1). The officers ordered a tow from the police station

later that night. Officer Giesel completed a tow report listing the reason for the tow as 

“arrestee’s property.” See Tow Report (Dckt. No. 47-1).

Officer Giesel later explained (in the state suppression hearing) why the police towed the 

car. He testified that officers had to tow it because “[i]t’s arrestee’s property. He was driving 

the vehicle, and we had to take the car – the car has to be towed and inventoried.” See State Mtn. 

to Suppress Transcript, at 39:19-24 (Dckt. No. 26-1). It was “standardized police procedure.” 

Id. at 39:20 – 40:2; see also id. at 40:20-23, 41:6-12. 

Officer Giesel testified that they needed to tow Black’s car partly because they didn’t 

“want to be held responsible for his vehicle to be left in a place that he didn’t want it to be left. 

So to cover us, we tow the vehicle.” Id. at 40:24 – 41:5. 

Officer Giesel also explained that Black had not paid the parking meter, and would have 

accrued tickets while in custody. Officers did not know when Black would be able to move the 

car given that he was arrested on an active arrest warrant. Id. at 42:13-23, 43:16 – 44:13. The 

car was uninsured, too, so no one could drive it. Id. at 42:4-8.

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The discovery of the firearm led to charges in state court for possession of a weapon. 

Black challenged the search in a motion to suppress. 

A state court judge presided over an evidentiary hearing. Officer Giesel testified. Id. at 

5:4 – 57:10. 

The state court ultimately granted Defendant’s motion and suppressed the firearm. The 

court acknowledged that “it is true that the rear driver’s side window [i.e., wheel] was to the left 

of the lane [i.e., the parking line].” Id. at 73:12-13. But the court granted the motion because the 

car was not blocking traffic: “My review of the video does not convince me that the car had to 

be towed. . . . I’m not convinced that the car was obstructing traffic.” Id. at 73:11-17. 

Black was later indicted in federal court for being a felon in possession of a firearm in 

violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g). See Indictment (Dckt. No. 1). Once again, Black moved to 

suppress the firearm recovered from his car. See Mtn. to Suppress (Dckt. No. 25). 

This Court later presided over a hearing, posed a number of questions, and directed the 

parties to file supplemental submissions. No party requested another evidentiary hearing. 

Analysis

The Fourth Amendment guarantees the “right of the people to be secure in their persons, 

houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.” See U.S. Const. amend. 

IV. “[T]he ultimate touchstone of the Fourth Amendment is ‘reasonableness.’” Lange v. 

California, 141 S. Ct. 2011, 2017 (2021) (quoting Brigham City v. Stuart, 547 U.S. 398, 403 

(2006)).

The standard for reasonableness is objective, not subjective. “An action is ‘reasonable’ 

under the Fourth Amendment, regardless of the individual officer’s state of mind, as long as the 

circumstances, viewed objectively, justify the action. The officer’s subjective motivation is 

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irrelevant.” Stuart, 547 U.S. at 404 (cleaned up) (emphasis in original); see also Ashcroft v. 

al-Kidd, 563 U.S. 731, 736 (2011) (“We ask whether ‘the circumstances, viewed objectively, 

justify [the challenged] action.’ If so, that action was reasonable ‘whatever the subjective intent’ 

motivating the relevant officials.”) (brackets and emphasis in original); Whren v. United States, 

517 U.S. 806, 814 (1996). “This approach recognizes that the Fourth Amendment regulates 

conduct rather than thoughts, and it promotes evenhanded, uniform enforcement of the law.” 

al-Kidd, 563 U.S. at 736.

The Fourth Amendment “reasonableness standard is objective, in the sense that it is the 

facts and circumstances presented to the officer at the time of the conduct at issue, rather than the 

officer’s subjective intent, that matter.” Doxtator v. O’Brien, 39 F.4th 852, 860 (7th Cir. 2022). 

Reasonableness is “‘judged from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene, rather than 

with the 20/20 vision of hindsight.’” Turner v. City of Champaign, 979 F.3d 563, 567 (7th Cir. 

2020) (quoting Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386, 396 (1989)). 

The Supreme Court recognized long ago that “physical entry of the home is the chief evil 

against which the wording of the Fourth Amendment is directed.” See Payton v. New York, 445 

U.S. 573, 585 (1980). But the Fourth Amendment is not limited to homes. That much is clear 

from the text, which protects the right of the people to be secure in their “persons, houses, 

papers, and effects.” See U.S. Const. amend. IV. 

A person’s “effects” include vehicles. See South Dakota v. Opperman, 428 U.S. 364, 367 

(1976). Towing a car is a seizure, so the decision to tow a car must pass muster under the Fourth 

Amendment. See United States v. Duguay, 93 F.3d 346, 351 (7th Cir. 1996). A search of a car 

must pass muster, too. Id. 

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“Both the decision to take the car into custody and the concomitant inventory search must 

meet the strictures of the Fourth Amendment.” Id. So, “the decision to impound (the ‘seizure’) 

is properly analyzed as distinct from the decision to inventory (the ‘search’).” Id.

The Court will address the seizure of the car, and then the search.

I. The Seizure

The Court begins with the officers’ decision to tow and impound Black’s car. Taking the 

car was a seizure under the Fourth Amendment. So, the seizure must satisfy the Fourth 

Amendment’s reasonableness requirement. 

Police may tow cars “[i]n the interests of public safety and as part of what the [Supreme] 

Court has called ‘community caretaking functions.’” South Dakota v. Opperman, 428 U.S. 364, 

368 (1976); see generally Cady v. Dombrowski, 413 U.S. 433 (1973). For example, the 

community caretaking function allows officers to remove “disabled or damaged vehicles” and 

“automobiles which violate parking ordinances.” Opperman, 428 U.S. at 368–69. 

A parking violation is a run-of-the-mill reason to tow a car. “Police will also frequently 

remove and impound automobiles which violate parking ordinances and which thereby 

jeopardize both the public safety and the efficient movement of vehicular traffic.” Id. (emphasis 

added). Streets need order, and order requires rules. A failure to follow the rules of the road is a 

reason for towing a car off the road. 

Arrests often lead to towing a vehicle when the arrestee is the driver. “Police often 

impound vehicles found by them in public or semi-public areas in order to safeguard the vehicle 

and its contents for the owner. This sometimes occurs . . . when the owner or operator of the 

vehicle has been arrested while in or near the car.” See Wayne R. LaFave, Search and Seizure: 

A Treatise on the Fourth Amendment § 7.3(c) (6th ed. Oct. 2022 update) (footnote omitted).

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The Seventh Circuit has provided guidance on when towing a car will satisfy the Fourth 

Amendment’s community caretaking exception.4F

5

 One question is whether the vehicle has a 

nexus to the criminal activity, meaning the reason why the driver is placed under arrest. See 

Duguay, 93 F.3d at 353 (noting that the decision to impound a vehicle could be “supported by 

probable cause of criminal activity”). The police might have probable cause to believe that the 

car contains contraband, or is contraband. See Thompson v. Village of Monee, 110 F. Supp. 3d 

826, 843 (N.D. Ill. 2015) (St. Eve, J.). The police might have a basis to tow the car because of a 

connection to the reason for the arrest. 

If not, then the next question is whether the car can stay where it is when the driver is 

arrested. The Seventh Circuit in Duguay referred to the “speedy and efficient removal of the car 

from public thoroughfares or parking lots,” which presupposes that the car needed to be moved 

in the first place. Id. 

But sometimes, the community caretaking function does not require a car to move. By 

way of example, imagine if Black had pulled his car into his own driveway, or the driveway of a 

friend’s house, instead of a metered parking spot. The community caretaking rationale applies 

well to communal space, like a public street or private property that is open to the public (e.g., a 

parking lot of a business). But the rationale seems to break down if the vehicle is on private 

residential property. See Miranda v. City of Cornelius, 429 F.3d 858, 864 (9th Cir. 2005) 

(“[T]he vehicle was already parked in the Mirandas’ home driveway. . . . Under these 

5

 By way of comparison, the Tenth Circuit has framed the issue with a non-exhaustive list of factors. See 

United States v. Sanders, 796 F.3d 1241, 1250 (10th Cir. 2015) (“Ascertaining whether an impoundment 

is justified by a reasonable and legitimate, non-pretextual community caretaking rationale is not an easy 

task. We note that courts have considered the following non-exclusive list of factors: (1) whether the 

vehicle is on public or private property; (2) if on private property, whether the property owner has been 

consulted; (3) whether an alternative to impoundment exists (especially another person capable of driving 

the vehicle); (4) whether the vehicle is implicated in a crime; and (5) whether the vehicle’s owner and/or 

driver have consented to the impoundment.”). 

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circumstances, the Mirandas’ car was not creating any impediment to traffic or threatening 

public safety. An officer cannot reasonably order an impoundment in situations where the 

location of the vehicle does not create any need for the police to protect the vehicle or to avoid a 

hazard to other drivers.”); United States v. Sanders, 796 F.3d 1241, 1251 (10th Cir. 2015) 

(rejecting the community caretaking rationale for towing a car that was “legally parked on 

private property”); Thompson, 110 F. Supp. 3d at 843 (St. Eve, J.) (“A vehicle parked inside of 

the owner’s garage (or even on their driveway) does not typically present the public safety or 

community caretaker concerns necessary for reasonable warrantless seizure of a vehicle.”); see 

also United States v. Caseres, 533 F.3d 1064, 1075 (9th Cir. 2008) (“There was no community 

caretaking rationale for the impoundment of Caseres’s car. The car was legally parked at the 

curb of a residential street two houses away from Caseres’s home.”).

If the car has no nexus to the crime, and if the car can’t stay where it is, then the police 

must consider whether someone else is on hand who can lawfully drive the car. “The decision to 

impound an automobile, unless it is supported by probable cause of criminal activity, is only 

valid if the arrestee is otherwise unable to provide for the speedy and efficient removal of the car 

from public thoroughfares or parking lots.” Duguay, 93 F.3d at 353. 

The Seventh Circuit shed light on the subject in United States v. Cartwright, 630 F.3d 

610 (7th Cir. 2010). There, the police pulled over a car for a traffic violation (it lacked an 

illuminated license plate). The driver pulled into a grocery store parking lot, but he didn’t stick 

the landing when it came to the parking job. He stopped “between two rows of parking spaces 

but not in a designated spot.” Id. at 612. 

The driver didn’t have his driver’s license, and he gave a name that the police could not 

confirm. Id. So the police placed the driver under arrest. Id. The police then searched the back 

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seat and found a loaded semi-automatic pistol. Id. The police later towed the car and performed 

an inventory search. Id. (“Pursuant to IMPD policy, Stratman had the car towed, as Cartwright 

[the driver] was under arrest and Golliday [the passenger] did not have a driver’s license.”). 

The Seventh Circuit upheld both the seizure of the car and the search. The officers 

followed standard procedure when they towed the vehicle. Id. The police had a policy of towing 

vehicles when the driver is placed under arrest. Id. at 614. 

The fact that the police followed normal procedures was relevant under the Fourth 

Amendment. But it was not dispositive, either. Id. at 614 (“[T]he police followed IMPD policy 

in deciding to tow the car. While that fact is important, it is not dispositive for purposes of the 

Fourth Amendment. The existence of a police policy, city ordinance, or state law alone does not 

render a particular search or seizure reasonable or otherwise immune from scrutiny under the 

Fourth Amendment.”).

The Seventh Circuit ultimately concluded that the decision to tow the car was reasonable 

because no one else was on hand to move the car. The driver was under arrest, and the passenger 

had no driver’s license. Id. at 615. Someone had to move the car, but no one could do it. The 

arrestee had “no means of ensuring the ‘speedy and efficient’ removal of [the passenger’s] car 

from the parking lot.” Id. (quoting Duguay, 93 F.3d at 353). 

The Seventh Circuit implicitly recognized that the car couldn’t stay where it was. It was 

in a parking lot, after all. A parking lot is private property. And again, the driver put the car in 

an awkward spot, “between two rows of parking spaces but not in a designated spot.” Id. at 612. 

The Fourth Amendment did not require the police to leave a vehicle in a bad spot after 

placing the driver under arrest. The police were not “obliged to leave the car where it was – 

stopped between two rows of parking spaces – as this may have created a hazard to others using 

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the lot or rendered the police vulnerable to claims had the car been stolen, vandalized, or 

damaged.” Id. at 615 n.1; see also id. (citing a district court opinion for the notion that the police 

may “need to impound a vehicle for the purpose of protecting it after the arrest of the driver, 

even when the vehicle was parked in a private lot”). 

The Seventh Circuit also brushed off a suggestion that the owner of the parking lot would 

not mind if the car had stayed put. “At oral argument, Cartwright’s lawyer advised that the 

grocery store permitted abandoned vehicles to remain in the parking lot for seventy-two hours, 

possibly enough time for [the owner of the car] to find a licensed driver or fix the license plate 

lamp. However, the Fourth Amendment did not require the officers to explore such alternatives 

with the store owner.” Id.

The case at hand is only a stone’s throw from the Seventh Circuit’s decision in

Cartwright. There, the police arrested a driver who put his car in a bad location in a public 

space, and no one was there to rescue the car. So too here. The police placed Black under arrest, 

and the car could not stay where it was because Black parked in the street. No one else was there 

to drive the car. So the police had a reasonable basis to tow it. 

Towing Black’s car followed standard procedures. For starters, the Illinois Motor 

Vehicle Code authorizes the towing of a vehicle when the driver is arrested and when the car is 

on the public streets. See 625 ILCS § 5/11-1302(c)(3) (“Any police officer is hereby authorized 

to remove or cause to be removed to the nearest garage or other place of safety any vehicle found 

upon a highway when . . . the person driving or in control of such vehicle is arrested for an 

alleged offense for which the officer is required by law to take the person arrested before a 

proper magistrate without unnecessary delay.”); see also Duguay, 93 F.3d 346, 354 n.3 (noting 

when the statute authorizes towing). 

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Black’s parking job violated the municipal parking regulations, too. The Chicago 

Municipal Code makes it illegal to park more than a foot from the curb when parallel parking. 

“It shall be unlawful to stand or park any vehicle, except for a motorcycle or motor scooter, in a 

roadway other than parallel with the edge of the roadway headed in the direction of lawful traffic 

movement and with the curbside wheels of the vehicle within 12 inches of the curb or edge of the 

roadway . . . .” See Chicago Mun. Code § 9-64-020(a) (emphasis added). A car that is parallel 

parked cannot be more than 12 inches from the curb. 

The Chicago Municipal Code permits towing a car that is parked too far from the curb. 

Id. at § 9-64-250(a) (“Any vehicle parked, stopped, or standing in violation of any provision of 

Section[] . . . 9-64-020 . . . shall be subject to an immediate tow as provided in Section 9-92-

030.”).

A local ordinance also prohibits parking in a bike path or lane. “The driver of a vehicle 

shall not: (i) stand or park a vehicle upon any on-street path or lane designated by official signs 

or markings for the use of bicycles; [or] (ii) stand or park upon any lane designated by pavement 

markings for the shared use of motor vehicles and bicycles.” Id. at § 9-40-060(a)(2). If a car is 

parked in a bike path or lane, the police can tow it immediately. Id. at § 9-40-060(a)(3) 

(providing that “any vehicle parked in violation of subsection (a)(2) shall be subject to an 

immediate tow and removal to a city vehicle pound or authorized garage”). 

The Chicago Police Department also has standard procedures allowing officers to tow an 

arrestee’s vehicle if the car is parked illegally. Police policy permits the “[t]ow of an arrestee’s 

vehicle” if “the vehicle cannot be legally, securely, and continuously parked at the scene of the 

arrest.” See Chicago Police Dep’t Gen. Order G07-03, at § IV.G.1 (Dckt. No. 31-2, at 5 of 8) 

(“A vehicle related to an arrest will be towed if . . . the vehicle cannot be legally, securely, and 

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continuously parked at the scene of the arrest . . . .”). Simply put, the policy allows officers to

tow an illegally parked car when placing the driver under arrest. 

Based on a review of the body-camera footage, the Court finds that Black’s car was more 

than 12 inches from the curb. See Giesel Video, at 0:38-40, 1:26-31, 2:27, 2:54, 3:13, 4:47; 

Bourgoyne Video, at 0:30. Frankly, it is not close. The car was not close to the curb. And the 

question of fact is not close, either. 

Again, the back wheel on the passenger side was several feet from the curb. The distance 

was greater than 12 inches. By parking too far from the curb, Black put his car in a precarious 

position. The back wheel on the driver’s side was over the line, sticking out into the street. It 

crossed the line and interfered with a bike path. 

The Court’s conclusion that Black’s car was more than 12 inches from the curb means 

that it violated local parking rules. So under the Municipal Code, and under the policy of the 

Chicago Police Department, the officers could tow it. Black’s car was not in a place where it 

could “legally, securely, and continuously” remain. See Chicago Police Dep’t Gen. Order G07-

03, at § IV.G.1 (Dckt. No. 31-2, at 5 of 8). In other words, the officers at hand followed a 

standardized policy by towing a car that violated the rules. 

It makes no difference whether the officers were subjectively thinking about the parking 

violation at the time of the towing. Subjective intent does not matter. See Stuart, 547 U.S. at 

404; al-Kidd, 563 U.S. at 736; see also United States v. Coccia, 446 F.3d 233, 240–41 (1st Cir. 

2006) (“A search or seizure undertaken pursuant to the community caretaking exception is not 

infirm merely because it may also have been motivated by a desire to investigate crime.”). 

Objective reasonableness is what counts. And here, the officers had an objectively 

reasonable basis to tow Black’s car because Black parked his car partially in the street. In any 

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event, at the evidentiary hearing, one of the arresting officers testified that “[t]he wheels of the 

vehicle were over the line, so they were in the road and not in a parking spot.” See State Mtn. to 

Suppress Transcript, at 31:7-8 (Dckt. No. 26-1). 

Black does not challenge the constitutionality of the City’s parking rules, and for good 

reason. The Fourth Amendment does not prohibit a municipality from drawing lines and towing 

a car that violates parking regulations. See Opperman, 428 U.S. at 369 (“The authority of police 

to seize and remove from the streets vehicles impeding traffic or threatening public safety and 

convenience is beyond challenge.”); United States v. Cherry, 436 F.3d 769, 774 (7th Cir. 2006)

(“And, because the car was located alongside the interstate – where it presented a public safety 

hazard – the police were authorized to order it towed to a safe location. Their authority to order 

such a tow in the interest of public safety is unassailable.”). 

The Fourth Amendment does not prohibit municipalities from having boundaries on 

where cars can be parked. Streets require lines. And crossing a line has consequences, in life 

and in the law. It does not cross a constitutional line to tow a car that is parked over the line. 

The Fourth Amendment does not bless bad parking jobs. 

Instead, Black tries to defend the placement of the car. As he see it, “[t]he vehicle was no 

longer parked upon the roadway, but rather was parked in a lawful parking space.” See Black’s 

Mem. in Supp. of Mtn. to Suppress, at 5 (Dckt. No. 26). He contends that “[t]here was no reason 

to believe that the vehicle had to be removed from its parked and locked position.” Id.

The Court respectfully sees things differently. It is true that Black’s car was mostly in a 

parking space. But it is equally true that Black parked his car over the line. A car that is mostly

legally parked is, well, illegally parked. When it comes to whether a car is lawfully parked, the 

answer is binary: either it is, or it isn’t. And here, it wasn’t. 

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True, the typical penalty for parking too far from a curb is a $25 fine. See Chicago Mun. 

Code § 9-100-020(b). But nothing limits officers’ discretion to decide to tow the car instead. 

Officers are “not constitutionally required to select the least intrusive way of fulfilling their 

community caretaking responsibilities.” United States v. Sylvester, 993 F.3d 16, 24 (1st Cir. 

2021) (quotation marks omitted); see also Colorado v. Bertine, 479 U.S. 367, 375–76 (1987). 

Other courts have recognized that the police can tow a car when the driver is under arrest, 

and no one else can move the car. Decades ago, then-Judge Breyer recognized the “many 

precedents finding police impoundment to protect a car from theft or vandalism reasonable, and 

hence lawful.” See United States v. Ramos-Morales, 981 F.2d 625, 626 (1st Cir. 1992) (Breyer, 

J.). 

“Case law supports the view that where a driver is arrested and there is no one 

immediately on hand to take possession, the officials have a legitimate non-investigatory reason 

for impounding the car.” Jaynes v. Mitchell, 824 F.3d 187, 197 (1st Cir. 2016) (Souter, J.) 

(emphasis in original) (quoting Vega-Encarnacion v. Babilonia, 344 F.3d 37, 41 (1st Cir. 2003)). 

Writing for the First Circuit, Justice Souter went further, suggesting that the police could 

tow a car if it “eventually” would have violated a parking regulation. “With [the arrestee] 

detained for an indeterminate period at the police station, and with no one immediately 

forthcoming to take possession, the police could reasonably enough have concluded that the car, 

which, incidentally, would have incurred a parking violation eventually, needed to be moved.” 

Id. (emphasis added).

By the same token, the Eighth Circuit has held that “[p]olice may take protective custody 

of a vehicle when they have arrested its occupants, even if it is lawfully parked and poses no 

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public safety hazard.” United States v. Arrocha, 713 F.3d 1159, 1163 (8th Cir. 2013) (emphasis 

added) (quotation marks omitted). 

Next, Black argues that he requested to call his wife to come and move his car. See

Black Supp. Resp., at 3 (Dckt. No. 46). “The defendant told the officers that his wife would 

come take the car, early on, when they said they were placing him under arrest for a warrant.” 

Id. 

This argument fails for at least two reasons. 

First, as a factual matter, the body camera footage does show Black asking to call his 

wife, but nowhere does Black say that he wanted to call his wife to move his car. See id. at 3 & 

n.2; Clay Video, at 2:03. Black does not point to evidence that he told officers that his wife 

could move his car. What’s more, nothing in the record shows that his wife was willing and able 

to move the car at that time. 

Second, as a legal matter, the police had no obligation to wait for someone else to arrive 

and take the keys. “[T]he police need not give a motorist ‘an opportunity to make alternative 

arrangements’ that avoid impoundment and inventory.” Cartwright, 630 F.3d at 615 (quoting 

Colorado v. Bertine, 479 U.S. 367, 373–74 (1987)); see also Cherry, 436 F.3d at 775 (noting that 

the Fourth Amendment does not “demand that police offer a motorist an alternative means of 

removing his vehicle that will avoid the need to tow it and conduct an inventory search”); United 

States v. Arrocha, 713 F.3d 1159, 1164 (8th Cir. 2013) (“Nothing in the Fourth Amendment 

requires a police department to allow an arrested person to arrange for another person to pick up 

his car to avoid impoundment and inventory.”) (quotation marks omitted). 

After all, when “a driver is arrested and there is no one immediately on hand to take 

possession, the officials have a legitimate non-investigatory reason for impounding the car.” 

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Jaynes, 824 F.3d at 197 (emphasis in original). The police had a basis to tow the car, and the 

Fourth Amendment did not require them to wait for another driver. 

Black relies heavily on the decision by the state court to suppress evidence of the firearm. 

See Black’s Mem. in Supp. of Mtn. to Suppress (Dckt. No. 26). The Court acknowledges that

the state court reached a different decision about whether to suppress evidence of the firearm. 

The state court focused on whether Black’s car was impeding traffic. The state court 

explained its ruling as follows: “My review of the video does not convince me that the car had 

to be towed. . . . I’m not convinced that the car was obstructing traffic.” See State Mtn. to 

Suppress Transcript, at 73:11-17 (Dckt. No. 26-1). 

Respectfully, this Court sees things differently because this Court frames the question 

differently.5F

6

 The question is not whether the car was blocking traffic. The question is whether 

Black’s car was legally parked and could remain where it was. Or more precisely, the question 

is whether it was reasonable under the Fourth Amendment to tow Black’s car when it was 

violating a municipal parking ordinance. This Court concludes that it was. 

Impeding traffic is a sufficient reason to tow a car. But impeding traffic is not a 

necessary reason to tow a car. That is, the police can tow a car for other reasons, too. Other 

permissible reasons include parking violations. The police can tow a car for violating a 

municipal parking ordinance, even if the car is not blocking traffic. 

6

 This Court is not bound by the state court’s ruling on a motion to suppress about a federal constitutional 

issue. See Elkins v. United States, 364 U.S. 206, 223–24 (1960) (“In determining whether there has been 

an unreasonable search and seizure by state officers, a federal court must make an independent inquiry, 

whether or not there has been such an inquiry by a state court, and irrespective of how any such inquiry 

may have turned out. The test is one of federal law, neither enlarged by what one state court may have 

countenanced, nor diminished by what another may have colorably suppressed.”); see also United States 

v. Rainone, 816 F.3d 490, 496 (7th Cir. 2016); United States v. Redwood, WL 3345546, at *3 (N.D. Ill. 

2016) (St. Eve, J.) (“The state court’s probable cause determination [] is irrelevant [under Elkins]. . . . 

[T]his Court must conduct an independent probable cause inquiry”).

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For example, in Opperman the Supreme Court upheld the decision to tow a car that 

received two parking tickets for parking in a zone that prohibited parking from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. 

See Opperman, 428 U.S. at 365–66. 

Similarly, in Cartwright, the Seventh Circuit upheld the decision to tow a car parked in a 

parking lot “between two rows of parking spaces but not in a designated spot.” Cartwright, 630 

F.3d at 612. The Fourth Amendment permitted the officers to tow the car because leaving it in 

the parking lot “rendered the police vulnerable to claims had the car been stolen, vandalized, or

damaged.” Id. at 615 n.1. 

The Seventh Circuit has recognized the authority of the police to tow a car that 

may “present[] a public safety hazard.” See Cherry, 436 F.3d at 774 (noting that the “authority 

to order such a tow in the interest of public safety is unassailable”). A car can present a safety 

hazard even if it is not blocking traffic in the middle of the street. A car could hit a vehicle that 

is partially parked in the street. So could bikers. 

Simply put, whether Black’s car was impeding traffic is part of the analysis, but it is not 

the end of the analysis. A car that impedes traffic can be towed. But cars that violate local 

parking ordinances can get towed, too. See Opperman, 428 U.S. at 365–66. 

In a similar vein, the question is not whether Black’s car “had to be towed.” See State 

Mtn. to Suppress Transcript, at 73:11-17 (Dckt. No. 26-1). The question is whether the decision 

to tow the car was reasonable. See United States v. Treisman, 71 F.4th 225, 234 (4th Cir. 2023) 

(“[W]e ask ‘not whether there was a need for the police to impound [Treisman’s] vehicle but, 

rather, whether the police officer’s decision to impound was reasonable under the 

circumstances.’”) (citation omitted). It was. 

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At the end of the day, Black crossed a line, but the police officers did not. Black moved 

his car out of the middle of the road. But in doing so, he parked illegally. The police legally 

towed an illegally parked car. The officers’ decision to tow Black’s car was reasonable under 

the Fourth Amendment. 

II. The Search

Next, the Court considers whether the officers’ decision to search the car satisfied the 

Fourth Amendment. 

The Supreme Court “has traditionally drawn a distinction between automobiles and 

homes or offices in relation to the Fourth Amendment.” See Opperman, 428 U.S. at 367. 

“Although automobiles are ‘effects’ and thus within the reach of the Fourth Amendment, 

warrantless examinations of automobiles have been upheld in circumstances in which a search of 

a home or office would not.” Id. (citation omitted). 

Towing a vehicle is a prime example of when homes and cars receive different treatment. 

Unlike homes, vehicles frequently get taken into custody. The possession of a vehicle by the 

police gives rise to a need for an inventory search. “When vehicles are impounded, local police 

departments generally follow a routine practice of securing and inventorying the automobiles’ 

contents.” Id. at 369. 

The Fourth Amendment allows officers to search a vehicle at the scene “for inventory 

assessment before its impoundment.” See United States v. Martin, 360 F. App’x 686, 688 (7th 

Cir. 2010). “In applying the reasonableness standard adopted by the Framers, [the Supreme] 

Court has consistently sustained police intrusions into automobiles impounded or otherwise in 

lawful police custody where the process is aimed at securing or protecting the car and its 

contents.” Opperman, 428 U.S. at 373. 

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“An inventory search is the search of property lawfully seized and detained, in order to 

ensure that it is harmless, to secure valuable items (such as might be kept in a towed car), and to 

protect against false claims of loss or damage.” Whren v. United States, 517 U.S. 806, 811 n.1 

(1996). An inventory search “protects the police from potential danger, protects the owner’s 

property while it remains in police custody, and protects the police against claims of lost, stolen, 

or damaged property.” Cartwright, 630 F.3d at 614; see also Bertine, 479 U.S. at 372. 

“Warrantless inventory searches of cars in police custody are also proper as long as the 

police lawfully have custody of the vehicles.” Cherry, 436 F.3d at 775 (quoting United States v. 

Jensen, 169 F.3d 1044, 1048 (7th Cir. 1999)). “Inventory searches constitute a well-recognized 

exception to the warrant requirement and are reasonable under the Fourth Amendment.” 

Cartwright, 630 F.3d at 613. 

“Once a car is impounded, an inventory search follows as a matter of course in prudent 

law enforcement practice, if for no other reason than to make a record to protect the police 

against a later claim that custodial negligence allowed the loss of valuable personal property by 

theft or otherwise.” Jaynes, 824 F.3d at 197. 

When evaluating the reasonableness of a search, one of the considerations is whether the 

police followed standard procedure. See Opperman, 428 U.S. at 375 (noting that whether the 

police followed standard procedures is “a factor tending to ensure that the intrusion would be 

limited in scope to the extent necessary to carry out the caretaking function”). “An inventory 

search is lawful if (1) the individual whose possession is to be searched has been lawfully 

arrested, and (2) the search is conducted as part of the routine procedure incident to incarcerating 

an arrested person and in accordance with established inventory procedures.” Id. 

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“Searches conducted by the police prior to towing a car are ‘lawful if conducted pursuant 

to standard police procedures aimed at protecting the owner’s property – and protecting the 

police from the owner’s charging them with having stolen, lost, or damaged his property.’” 

United States v. Cherry, 436 F.3d 769, 772 (7th Cir. 2006) (quoting United States v. Pittman, 

411 F.3d 813, 817 (7th Cir. 2005)). But “an inventory search must not be a ruse for a general 

rummaging in order to discover incriminating evidence.” Florida v. Wells, 495 U.S. 1, 4 (1990).

So, once officers validly determine that the car is subject to a tow, they may conduct an 

inventory search as a matter of course. But like any other search, an inventory search must be 

reasonable within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment.

Black argues that the search of his car was unreasonable because the police did not 

follow standard protocols. As he sees it, the search that took place was not a formal inventory 

search at all. See Black Supp. Resp., at 3–7 (Dckt. No. 46). 

Black points to the fact that the would-be inventory search was incomplete. The Tow 

Report includes a “Vehicle Inventory” section which is completed, but it appears to be marked as 

“unknown” whether any personal property is in the vehicle. See Tow Report (Dckt. No. 47-1). 

Also marked as unknown is information about the interior of the car, like whether the glove box 

was locked. Id.

As Black sees it, “the evidence does not show that the officers complied with a policy. 

Not a single personal item was removed from the car and inventoried. They looked for a gun, 

found it, then disregarded everything else.” See Black Supp. Resp., at 9 (Dckt. No. 46).

Black is correct that police policy requires officers to “remove and inventory personal 

property found within the vehicle” when ordering a tow. See Chicago Police Dep’t Gen. Order 

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G07-03, at § IV.A.7 (Dckt. No. 31-2, at 4 of 8). Police policy also requires that “[t]he property 

inventory number will be indicated on the Vehicle Tow Report,” which wasn’t done here. Id.

Even so, the potential incompleteness of the inventory search does not mean that the 

entire search was unconstitutional. A search that violates local police rules can comply with the 

Fourth Amendment. See Marling v. Littlejohn, 964 F.3d 667, 669 (7th Cir. 2020). On the 

flipside, a search that complies with local police rules can violate the Fourth Amendment. See 

Cartwright, 630 F.3d at 614. The circles overlap, but they’re not perfectly coextensive. 

Instead, the importance of following “standardized criteria or established routine” during 

an inventory search “is based on the principle that an inventory search must not be a ruse for a 

general rummaging in order to discover incriminating evidence.” Marling, 964 F.3d at 669 

(quoting Wells, 495 U.S. at 4).

When conducting an inventory search, “minor deviations from department policy do not 

render an inventory search unreasonable.” Cartwright, 630 F.3d at 616; see also United States v. 

Magdirila, 962 F.3d 1152, 1157 (9th Cir. 2020) (“Inventory searches that materially deviate 

from department policy can be invalid. However, minor noncompliance with department 

policies does not invalidate an otherwise lawful inventory search.”) (citation omitted). 

These minor deviations include “failing to make a complete list of the property found” in 

the car. Cartwright, 630 F.3d at 616; see also United States v. Garay, 938 F.3d 1108, 1112 (9th 

Cir. 2019) (collecting cases holding that the “failure to complete an inventory form does not 

invalidate an inventory search”). 

Here, the officers’ failure to conduct a complete inventory search does not invalidate the 

search. The officers failed to make a complete list of the items in Black’s car. This failure, 

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standing alone, does not invalidate the search. See Cartwright, 630 F.3d at 616. It is not 

surprising that the loaded firearm garnered special attention, and the police stopped looking. 

Maybe the police could have performed a more exhaustive search of the vehicle. Maybe 

the police could have done more looking, and itemized more property after finding the gun. 

Even so, it makes no difference. The fact that the police could have done more does not mean 

that the police acted unlawfully when they did less. 

Moreover, the failure to follow inventory procedures to a tee does not invalidate a search 

if “the police would inevitably have found the gun through a lawful inventory search.” 

Cartwright, 630 F.3d at 616. “Under the inevitable discovery doctrine, if the government can 

establish that the evidence at issue, even though unlawfully obtained, would have inevitably been 

discovered through lawful means, then the deterrence rationale animating the exclusionary rule 

has so little basis that the evidence should be admitted.” Id. at 613. 

Here, the officers’ decision to tow and impound the car was valid. As a result, the gun 

inevitably would have been discovered through an inventory search that complied with the City’s 

policies. The incompleteness of the initial search would not matter, because the police would 

have located the firearm anyway. 

Conclusion

For the foregoing reasons, Defendant’s motion to suppress evidence of the firearm (Dckt. 

No. 25) is hereby denied. 

Date: September 12, 2023 

Steven C. Seeger

United States District Judge

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