Source: https://law.justia.com/cases/california/supreme-court/3d/43/21.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 00:23:02+00:00

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James K. Hahn, City Attorney, Lewis N. Unger, Assistant City Attorney, Donna B. Weisz and Jack L. Brown, Deputy City Attorneys, for Real Parties in Interest.
We granted review in this case to determine whether the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) should be enjoined from using a motorized battering ram and pyrotechnic explosive devices known as "flashbangs" to execute searches of so-called "rock houses," which are specially fortified residential dwellings where crystallized "rock" cocaine is made and sold. As will appear, we are persuaded that the unregulated use of the motorized battering ram, but not the flashbangs, poses a significant and unusual threat to property and public safety that may, unless subject to judicial scrutiny, contravene the proscription against unreasonable searches contained in the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and article I, section 13, of the California Constitution.
In light of the deliberate, often prolonged, planning that the LAPD undertakes before it deploys the device, prior judicial review of its proposed use of the ram against suspected rock houses is unlikely to obstruct effective law enforcement. Therefore we conclude that a writ of mandate should issue directing the trial court to enjoin deployment of the ram to execute search or arrest warrants unless a magistrate authorizes its use, and unless exigent circumstances arise at the time of entry. On the other hand, since we are not convinced that the flashbangs are inherently dangerous, we rely on the discretion of law enforcement agencies to determine when and under what circumstances they are to be used.
Petitioners (hereinafter plaintiffs) are taxpayers and individuals who occupied a suburban Los Angeles residence on the evening of February 6, 1985, when it was forcibly entered by LAPD officers using a motorized battering ram to penetrate a wall of the house and flashbangs to divert and disarm its occupants. The police were executing a search warrant issued several days earlier after an informant made a controlled purchase of rock cocaine through a metal slot in the front door.
The LAPD had engaged the assistance of Special Weapons and Tactics Team members to break into the house, after concluding that iron bars over its windows and an electronically controlled locked "cage" at the front [43 Cal. 3d 25] entrance precluded rapid entry by less dramatic means. The police chief invited the news media to witness the first use of the "V-100," an armored personnel carrier equipped with a battering ram. In front of television cameras and without prior warning to the occupants -- other than a bystander's shouts of "Police!" -- the officers drove the ram through the exterior wall of the house and into a family room; simultaneously, police detonated flashbangs in the room and entered in full force. As it turned out, the house was occupied by two unarmed women and their three young children; the officers recovered no weapons and only trace amounts of cocaine along with alleged drug paraphernalia.
Plaintiffs brought an action for damages and declaratory and injunctive relief on federal and state grounds, contending that the LAPD's practice of using the motorized battering ram and flashbangs against residences constitutes inherently excessive force which is unreasonable per se under the Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution, and article I, sections 1, 7, 13, and 15 of the California Constitution. Real parties in interest (hereinafter defendants) removed the action to federal court, which remanded to state courts all claims with the exception of a damage action under a federal civil rights statute. By then -- in May 1985 -- the LAPD had used the devices in a total of four searches of suspected rock houses.
Plaintiffs applied for a preliminary injunction, urging that the ram and flashbangs be prohibited in searches of occupied dwellings. At the hearing, however, they stipulated that they did not seek to restrict LAPD deployment of either device "if such use reasonably appears necessary to stop an ongoing threat of immediate serious injury or death" such as in a terrorist or hostage scenario.
Defendants averred that the fortifications of the house in question appeared more elaborate than those installed on other houses in the neighborhood to avert burglaries -- although they conceded their preliminary investigation was hampered because their informant could not see into the interior of the house. The informant's purchase of cocaine confirmed LAPD suspicions that it was a rock house: the informant was "buzzed" into the front cage, the exterior door of which was locked after entry, he exchanged cash for rock cocaine through the door slot, and he was released after being "buzzed" out. Furthermore, raids against two similarly fortified houses owned by the same individual suspected of owning the target house had yielded cocaine and weapons, and neither had contained clothing or furnishings indicating the presence of regular occupants.
On the basis of the 2 previous raids and of the statistically high incidence of weapons in rock houses generally -- between October 1984 and February 1985, police seized 207 guns in 269 operations against such houses -- the LAPD anticipated armed resistance. Moreover, because of the elaborate ironworks of the exterior entrances, they concluded it would be impossible to enter by conventional methods before evidence was destroyed.
Defendants went on to describe the engines of war that are the subject of the present action. Each V-100 armored personnel carrier is mounted with a 14-foot horizontal steel pole capped with a rectangular steel plate. Driven at approximately five miles an hour against the exterior wall of a building and then withdrawn, it creates a hole large enough for several officers to enter simultaneously. Although approved by the department for use in nine raids, the motorized rams have actually been deployed only four times, with no physical injuries to persons or major damage to buildings, either stucco or brick. Plaintiffs contended this apparent safety record is misleading, warning that according to their experts structural damage could be catastrophic, resulting in serious injuries through flying debris, collapsed ceilings, and even explosion and fire.
Defendants asserted that flashbangs have proved particularly effective in safely disarming dangerous individuals, by temporarily blinding them with a brilliant flash of light and confusing them with artillery-like sounds. Since they were introduced into the police arsenal in 1982, flashbangs have been approved by the department for use 38 times, on 25 occasions in 1985 alone. Defendants introduced expert testimony showing that flashbangs are designed exclusively to produce dramatic pyrotechnics, not to injure, and should cause only minor skin burns at worst. This has proved true, with a single tragic exception: a woman was killed in December 1984 when a flashbang exploded between her back and a wall. The LAPD accounts the death a "freak" accident, but has taken measures to preclude a similar [43 Cal. 3d 27] mishap by reducing by half the explosive power of the device and requiring that officers detonate them only after they have seen fully into a target area. No other injuries have been reported.
Defendants maintained that although dangerous, the devices do not constitute deadlier force than many of the conventional tools -- including tear gas, hand-held battering devices, and explosives applied directly to deadbolts -- long used for forcible entry. They argued that a blanket prohibition against a particular device, subject to magistrate approval, is without precedent. Moreover, such review would duplicate the careful prior screening already conducted by police administrative panels, which approve deployment only when either device is the safest means of accomplishing a speedy forced entry. Finally, they insisted that injunctive relief is unavailable: courts may review the LAPD's use of any particular weaponry only retrospectively, on a case-by-case basis.
The trial court agreed with defendants. It denied plaintiffs' motion for injunctive relief concluding that although they might eventually establish that the motorized battering rams and flashbangs are unreasonable per se, they had submitted insufficient data to demonstrate a current policy of misuse by the LAPD. It observed that short of banning the devices outright, it lacked authority to regulate or condition their use except by requiring prior judicial authorization for nighttime service.
Although it denied the motion on the ground that "it's a mistake for the court to interfere in the first instance," the court expressed misgivings about use of the motorized battering ram without judicial oversight: "Waking people after 10 o'clock you have to get the magistrate's permission. Knocking a large hole in a wall of a residence where people might be sleeping, you don't have to get a magistrate's permission." It "question[ed] the wisdom" of LAPD policy, urging "The judgment having been made to use the ram, why can't you tell the magistrate on an honest basis that this is a situation that calls for the battering ram and we are seriously contemplating it?"
 In deciding whether a preliminary injunction should issue, the trial court must evaluate two interrelated factors: "The first is the likelihood that the plaintiff will prevail on the merits at trial. The second is the interim harm that the plaintiff is likely to sustain if the injunction were denied as compared to the harm that the defendant is likely to suffer if the preliminary injunction were issued." (IT Corp. v. County of Imperial (1983) 35 Cal. 3d 63, 69-70 [196 Cal. Rptr. 715, 672 P.2d 121]); accord, Cohen v. Board of Supervisors (1985) 40 Cal. 3d 277, 286 [219 Cal. Rptr. 467, 707 P.2d 840].) Our inquiry into whether the court abused its discretion in the present case is therefore two-fold: do plaintiffs demonstrate they are likely to prevail on the merits of their challenge to the LAPD's current practice of using motorized battering rams and flashbangs? And are they likely to suffer irreparable harm to their interests as individuals and as taxpayers if interim relief is withheld?
 We conclude that plaintiffs fail to meet the foregoing requirements as to the flashbangs. We are not persuaded by their claim that flashbangs, like the ram, pose an unacceptable threat to property and person. At their present reduced explosive power, and under current LAPD guidelines requiring that officers detonate them only after they have seen fully into a targeted room, the flashbangs appear from the record to present a minimal risk of injury -- certainly a lesser risk than the use of guns to disarm hostile suspects. Flashbangs have been used without incident under the modification and restrictions instituted by the LAPD in 1984 after a single fatal accident; in more than 25 cases since 1984, the flashbangs have aided the police while inflicting only momentary disorientation on suspects. Because use of the flashbangs may not, therefore, be accounted unreasonable, the court did not abuse its discretion in denying a preliminary injunction against their use.
Although defendants dispute the level of risk posed by the V-100 battering ram, they concede the potential danger from collapse of building walls and ceilings or through rupture of utility lines. Fire from damaged electrical wires or explosion from gas leaking from broken gas pipes could threaten the safety not only of occupants, but of entire neighborhoods. Because of the unprecedented risks to owners, occupants, and neighbors of suspected rock houses, therefore, routine deployment of the ram to enter dwellings must be considered presumptively unreasonable unless authorized in advance by a neutral magistrate, and unless exigent circumstances develop at the time of entry.
Defendants insist that short of an absolute ban on devices deemed unreasonable per se, judicial review of police tactics is limited to after-the-fact inquiry into whether the force used was excessive. We disagree. Although we have not previously imposed specific conditions on the use of any single weapon in the police arsenal, there is authority for requiring magistrate approval for especially dangerous and intrusive law enforcement practices. Penal Code section 1533, for example, permits nighttime service of an arrest or search warrant only on a showing of good cause and at a magistrate's discretion. Similarly, this court held that certain intrusive body searches without special warrant are presumed unreasonable even when performed incident to a valid arrest and on probable cause. (People v. Scott (1978) 21 Cal. 3d 284 [145 Cal. Rptr. 876, 578 P.2d 123].) Common to both limitations is the concern that the sensitive evaluation of unusual and dangerous intrusions affecting privacy and security interests of targeted persons should not be left exclusively to the "officer engaged in the often competitive enterprise of ferreting out crime." (Johnson v. United States (1948) 333 U.S. 10, 13-114 [92 L. Ed. 2d 436, 440, 68 S. Ct. 367].) Although searches of rock houses are directed against residences and not persons, the risk of incidental injury to human beings within the residences is reasonably foreseeable.
Defendants insist that the Fourth Amendment imposes no requirement of judicial oversight: "it is generally left to the discretion of the executing officers to determine the details of how best to proceed with the performance of a search authorized by warrant -- subject of course to the general Fourth Amendment protection 'against unreasonable searches and seizures.'" (Fn. omitted.) (Dalia v. United States (1978) 441 U.S. 238, 257 [60 L. Ed. 2d 177, 192, 99 S. Ct. 1682].) Their reliance on Dalia is misplaced.
First, Dalia is distinguishable on its facts. It involved a warrant authorizing a telephone wiretap under 18 United States Code section 2518, and addressed the limited question of whether a separate warrant was required before federal officers could enter a business office covertly to install the device. The court found such authorization implicit in the original warrant: [43 Cal. 3d 30] in virtually every wiretap, surreptitious entry is necessary and a separate warrant would prove an "empty formalism." (Id., at p. 258 [60 L.Ed.2d at p. 193].) Second, covert entry involves minimal destruction of property and danger to persons; as the court noted, it is generally the safest -- and often the only -- means of executing a legal wiretap. On those grounds, the court held that covert entry is a reasonable means of executing a warrant for electronic eavesdropping.
Neither basis for the holding in Dalia applies here. Authority to make a forced entry by means of a powerful armed vehicle that smashes blindly through the walls of a residence is by no means implicit in a routine warrant to search for contraband. More important, the motorized battering ram is usually not the least destructive, safest, or only method of conducting such a search. Rather, it is so destructive that its use against residences generally infringes on occupants' and owners' rights to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures.
Defendants insist we must defer in the first instance to police discretion. We do, in fact, yield to police discretion in the first instance as to the desirability of using mechanical force. But before such force is actually employed, the impartial judgment of a judicial officer must be interposed between citizens and the police. Thus the LAPD's use of the V-100 battering ram must depend on prior magistrate approval.
Defendants next contend that in any case before-the-fact review is precluded by Parsley v. Superior Court (1973) 9 Cal. 3d 934 [109 Cal. Rptr. 563, 513 P.2d 611], because the LAPD uses the motorized battering ram only under exigent circumstances that cannot be assessed in advance. In fact, however, the LAPD itself makes just such a prior assessment under its current procedures: it approves use of the ram in specific cases not because an exigent situation is in progress, but because it strongly suspects that when the officers arrive at the scene they will be met with resistance to a legal search.
The magistrate should decide only whether the motorized battering ram could be used with relative safety against a particular building, if the need arises during execution of a search or arrest warrant. The LAPD declares that it already conducts its own screening of the need for the device and deploys it only as an extreme measure and only if officers at the scene remain convinced it is necessary. Magistrate review would simply place that screening, and the decision whether use of the ram could be justified, in the hands of a neutral and independent judicial officer.
In Scott we established a balancing test that we now adapt to the present case. (See 21 Cal.3d at pp. 293-294.)  Before authorizing potential use of the battering ram, the magistrate finding probable cause for the underlying search must apply an additional balancing test to determine whether use of the device is appropriate. Factors that must be considered include the reliability of the ram under the specific circumstances as a rapid and safe means of entry, the seriousness of the underlying criminal offense and society's consequent interest in obtaining a conviction, the strength of law enforcement suspicions that evidence of the crime will be destroyed, the importance of the evidence sought, and the possibility that the evidence could be recovered by alternative means less violative of Fourth Amendment protection. Alternative means include conventional methods of entry and such procedures as abatement against the owner of the suspected rock house or criminal charges under Health and Safety Code sections 11366 and 11366.5, which are especially tailored to combat the proliferation of fortified [43 Cal. 3d 32] houses. fn. 1 All these considerations must, in turn, be balanced against the severity of the proposed intrusion: the likelihood of injury to innocent third parties as well as to occupants and police officers, and of extreme property damage to the target house and neighboring structures.
[5b] We conclude therefore that the motorized battering ram may be used in executing searches or arrests only after the LAPD satisfies three preliminary requirements: i.e., it (1) obtains a warrant upon probable cause, (2) receives prior authorization to use the ram from a magistrate, and (3) at the time of entry determines there are exigent circumstances amounting to an immediate threat of injury to officers executing the warrant or reasonable grounds to suspect that evidence is being destroyed.
[7a] Having concluded that plaintiffs are likely to prevail on the merits, we must now determine whether the balance of interim harm favors plaintiffs.
For the foregoing reasons, we hold that the trial court abused its discretion in denying plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction. Let a peremptory writ of mandate issue directing respondent court to set aside its order of June 18, 1985, denying plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction in Langford et al. v. Gates et al., and to enter an order enjoining the use by defendants of their motorized battering ram unless they obtain prior judicial authorization to do so in a search or arrest warrant, and unless exigent circumstances arise at the time of entry.
Broussard, J., Grodin, J., and Reynoso, J., concurred.
I write separately to express my views on the use by the police of a weapon of war in the neighborhoods of our citizens.
(2) When used to gain entry to a house, the V-100 is driven at approximately five miles per hour toward an exterior wall. The ram is attached to the front of the vehicle. Once it hits and punches through the wall, the driver puts the vehicle in reverse and, as the ram is being withdrawn, the [43 Cal. 3d 34] driver rakes it back and forth to create a hole approximately five feet in diameter through which the police may enter without having to crawl. These maneuvers take approximately six seconds.
(3) The department's usual but not invariable practice is to announce over a public address system that the LAPD is present to serve a search warrant immediately prior to using the V-100 to gain entry to a house. Insofar as the record reveals, however, the police do not ordinarily wait even a few seconds to determine whether the occupants of the house are willing to permit entry.
(4) The V-100 causes substantial damage to the target house. The force of impact is such as to cause wall studs at the area of impact to be displaced and thrown forcefully into the interior of the house. In addition, the V-100 causes significant damage to walls and ceilings located at some distance from the point of impact.
(5) The parties dispute the level of risk posed by use of the V-100 to the overall integrity of the target house and to the surrounding neighborhood. All agree, however, that there is a potential danger of structural collapse and/or rupture of electrical and gas utility lines and that a serious fire or explosion which could threaten the safety not only of the occupants of the target house but also of the surrounding neighborhood could result. In addition, the police have no way of knowing in advance whether individuals are standing or sitting directly in front of the V-100's intended point of impact and so might be struck by the ram itself or injured by falling wall studs, flying bits of masonry, or broken glass from nearby windows.
(7) The V-100 was next used on February 13, 1985, against an even more "fortified" house located at 233 West 111th Street. The police again concede that they were able successfully to enter and search this very same building -- without use of the V-100 -- in September of 1984. They further concede that the decision to request use of the V-100 on February 13th was based solely on the fact that the house was fortified and that, during the previous search, they had recovered two weapons.
(8) The third use of the V-100 occurred on March 22, 1985, against a house located at 11442 Wheeler Avenue. The police concede, yet again, that they were able successfully to enter and search this same house -- without use of the V-100 -- two months earlier, before the occupants were able to destroy the cocaine in their possession. Moreover, although a weapon was recovered in the earlier raid, there is no indication in the record that any attempt was made by the then current occupants to use it against the officers who executed the warrant. Finally, the only visible change in the fortifications during the two-month interval between the first and second searches was the addition of a chain link fence around the front of the house.
(11) No one was physically injured during the four occasions on which the V-100 was used, although the three children present in the Langford's house when it was rammed were so terrified by the experience that they were still having nightmares about it at the time of the hearing on the preliminary injunction, i.e., some four months later.
I concur fully in the majority's conclusion that the LAPD's use of the V-100 may be regulated prospectively, through a carefully tailored injunction. The LAPD's contention that use of any particular weaponry may only be reviewed retrospectively on a case-by-case basis is frivolous.
Second, in cases retrospectively challenging police practices, the courts routinely announce categorical rules that not only resolve the question whether the police acted properly in the case before the court but also define the circumstances, if any, in which such practices may be used in the future. Though technically not injunctions, such rules obviously have precisely the same effect. (See, e.g., Tennessee v. Garner (1985) 471 U.S. 1 [85 L. Ed. 2d 1, 105 S. Ct. 1694]; Steagald v. United States (1981) 451 U.S. 204 [68 L. Ed. 2d 38, 101 S. Ct. 1642]; Payton v. New York (1980) 445 U.S. 573 [63 L. Ed. 2d 639, 100 S. Ct. 1371]; Delaware v. Prouse (1979) 440 U.S. 648 [59 L. Ed. 2d 660, 99 S. Ct. 1391].) Consider Tennessee v. Garner, supra, 471 U.S. 1. There, the Supreme Court confronted the issue whether police use of deadly force to apprehend a fleeing 15-year-old suspected felon violated the Fourth Amendment. The court concluded that it did and announced the rule that such force may be used only if the officer has probable cause to believe that the fleeing suspect poses a threat of serious physical harm, either to the officer or others. (Id., at p. 11 [85 L.Ed.2d at p. 10].) The effect of that holding is to enjoin police across the nation from using deadly force to effectuate an arrest except in the circumstances sanctioned.
Thus, I must reject as frivolous the LAPD's contention that its use of the V-100 may only be reviewed retrospectively. Unlike the majority, however, I would not delegate review of its use to magistrates for a case-by-case determination. The V-100 should be used only in those cases where it is necessary to rescue an individual threatened with serious injury or death.
This latter alternative seems particularly appropriate here, since even under the balancing process which my colleagues would have a magistrate perform, an officer could not use the V-100 to gain entry to a target home.
Intrusions into the home -- even nonconsensual forcible entries -- typically do not cause or risk physical injury to the occupants. Use of the V-100, however, risks precisely such injury, as well as several additional extraordinary harms. It risks not just serious physical harm to the occupants as it [43 Cal. 3d 39] "smashes blindly through the walls of a residence" but also injury to the property and persons of those who live nearby (maj. opn., ante, at pp. 30, 31). It causes greater damage to the target house than would any conventional means of forced entry. With it, the state proposes to severely damage, if not destroy, the home of a citizen not yet convicted of a criminal offense; to risk his health, if not his life; and to risk harm to his neighbors. In light of these dangers, I must agree with my colleagues that use of the V-100 as the means of gaining entry to homes is presumptively unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment.
These means are far less destructive and dangerous than an entry with the V-100. fn. 8 Moreover, where there is no danger of destruction of evidence, or escape, or serious injury to officers or others, such means are equally as effective as the V-100, even though somewhat more time-consuming.
What, then, of a case involving the danger of destruction or loss of evidence? As a practical matter, this danger arises primarily in connection with lawful searches for evidence of drug and gambling offenses, because evidence of these crimes is or can be peculiarly amenable to ready destruction. Here, it is argued that effectiveness in conducting searches for evidence of drug crimes in "fortified" houses requires use of the V-100 because there is no less intrusive alternative that will allow the police to make a sufficiently rapid entry to prevent such destruction.
This argument is unpersuasive for two reasons. First, it lacks evidentiary support. Consider the record. The LAPD has not come forward with even a single incident in which their attempt to execute a warrant on a "rock house" by conventional means resulted in a delay and subsequent destruction of evidence. In every reported incident, the suspects' attempt to destroy narcotics was frustrated by speedy police entry. The LAPD's conclusory statements that such destruction is likely to occur absent use of the V-100 are purely speculative.
Second, the Legislature has provided the police with a means of shutting down "rock houses" which is far less intrusive than their destruction by a V-100. (See Health & Saf. Code, §§ 11366, 11366.5, 11366.6. fn. 9) As a result, the effectiveness of law enforcement efforts to prevent the distribution of dangerous drugs is not dependent upon catching the dealers red-handed.
One of these statutes, section 11366, has been on the books for some time. It makes it a felony to "open or maintain any place for the purpose [43 Cal. 3d 41] of unlawfully selling, giving away, or using" dangerous and unlawful drugs such as, for example, cocaine and heroin.
As a result, even in those cases where evidence might be destroyed before police gained entry to a "fortified" structure by conventional means, the people, through their elected representatives, have demonstrated that measures short of the destruction are available to quell such criminal efforts to avoid detection and punishment. The Legislature's prompt and highly commendable action in passing sections 11366.5 and 11366.6 ensures that the community's interest in preventing the distribution of these dangerous drugs cannot be frustrated by narcotics dealers who hide behind even layer-upon-layer of steel bars and doors. With the enactment of these statutes, police resort to weapons of war such as the V-100 are no longer even arguably necessary to stop narcotics dealers in their tracks.
Similar alternatives are available to the police vis-a-vis purveyors of unlawful games of chance, evidence of which is readily amenable to destruction, a class that seemingly would encompass only bookmaking. (See Pen. Code, §§ 337a, 11225-11230.) fn. 12 And, there is no reason to doubt that, should use of "fortified" houses for the distribution of illegal drugs other than heroin, cocaine, and phencyclidine, become a problem, the Legislature will act promptly to extend the reach of sections 11366.5 and 11366.6 to deter and punish such conduct. fn. 13 As a result, I am compelled to conclude that the use of the V-100 is neither sufficiently productive nor necessary to outweigh its intrusion upon Fourth Amendment interests in cases involving a danger of destruction or loss of evidence.
This brings us to the final category of cases in which use of force is ever allowable in gaining entry to a home -- the threat of serious injury to officers or others. The LAPD insists that effectiveness in making arrests and in conducting searches at "fortified" dwellings requires use of the V-100, where there is a significant danger of armed resistance. We are told that the presence of "fortifications" increases the likelihood that the police will face such resistance if entry is attempted via conventional means.
No evidence has been offered to support this contention. However, even if we were to assume its truth, this argument fails. The simple fact is that there is always an alternative available to the police in the face of a threat that they will be fired upon if they attempt entry by force. They can encircle the target house, announce their authority and purpose, and simply wait out the suspects inside. Eventually, the suspects must surrender.
Such tactics are not new. Nor are they dramatic. But history attests to their effectiveness. Moreover, these are safe alternatives.
The V-100, with all its power, is unable to climb stairs and it will not fit into elevators. Its use against a "fortified" house blocked off by the vehicles of innocent citizens is also not feasible. (See, ante, fn. 3, at p. 35.) Given these facts, there seems little reason to endorse its use against a structure fortuitously accessible.
In sum, the only circumstance in which use of the V-100 is even arguably justifiable is for rescue, that is, to save the life of a hostage who is unquestionably in danger. For that reason, I would hold that plaintiffs are entitled to a preliminary injunction prohibiting its use in other circumstances.
I concur with the majority opinion to the extent it upholds the trial court's refusal to issue a preliminary injunction precluding police use of "flashbangs" during drug searches. I dissent, however, to the majority's holding that henceforth law enforcement officers must obtain prior judicial authorization before using the V-100 motorized battering ram during such searches. In my view, the courts should neither interfere with, nor restrain the use of, particular law enforcement methods or techniques which play a legitimate role in fighting crime, so long as no unreasonable risk of danger to human life is involved.
The majority voices a concern about the potential dangers to person or property posed by the V-100 ram. But most police work is inherently dangerous, frequently entailing high-speed chases, gunfire and explosives. Yet, obviously we do not require prior judicial authorization in those instances; the existence of prior administrative guidelines and approval procedures, and the availability of civil damage actions is deemed adequate protection for our citizens. No compelling reason exists for singling out the V-100 ram for special treatment; the record indicates that the ram has been used on several prior occasions without inflicting any serious personal injury.
According to the record, elaborate guidelines exist for obtaining administrative approval before using the ram. These guidelines require the officers to take into consideration such factors as the fortified nature of the house under scrutiny, the existence and viability of alternative entries, the expected resistance to a forced entry, and the risk of harm to the entering officers, the suspects and their neighbors. The majority's imposition of yet another layer of review-and-approval procedure, namely, submission of the issue to a magistrate, is both unnecessary and unwise.
The controlling principle is quoted by the majority itself: "[I]t is generally left to the discretion of the executing officers to determine the details of [43 Cal. 3d 45] how best to proceed with the performance of a search authorized by warrant -- subject of course to the general Fourth Amendment protection 'against unreasonable searches and seizures.'" (Dalia v. United States (1978) 441 U.S. 238, 257, fn. omitted [ 60 L. Ed. 2d 177, 192, 99 S. Ct. 1682].) In my view, given the fact that the V-100 ram is only used to enter fortified houses where narcotics transactions occur, and that careful administrative scrutiny is required before each use, no Fourth Amendment violation can arise here.
I would affirm the judgment denying the preliminary injunction.
FN 1. Health and Safety Code section 11366 provides: "Every person who opens or maintains any place for the purpose of unlawfully selling, giving away, or using any controlled substance ... which is a narcotic drug classified in Schedule III, IV, or V, shall be punished by imprisonment in the county jail for a period of not more than one year or the state prison."
Section 11366.5, subdivision (b) states: "Any person who has under his or her management or control any building, room, space, or enclosure, either as an owner, lessee, agent, employee, or mortgagee, who knowingly allows the building, room, space, or enclosure to be fortified to suppress law enforcement entry in order to further the sale of any amount of cocaine, heroin, or phencyclidine and who obtains excessive profit from the use of the building, room, space, or enclosure shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for two, three, or four years."
Although the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) prefers to use the euphemism "motorized battering ram" to refer to its specially equipped V-100, the department somewhat grudgingly admits that it would be "perceived to be a tank," which is what plaintiffs prefer to call it. Hereafter, the ram shall be referred to simply as the V-100, even though the "tank" description appears wholly accurate.
FN 2. Although the LAPD gave its officers authority to use the V-100 on five other occasions during 1985, they did not employ it because of "changed circumstances" encountered at the scene of execution of these search warrants.
There is no indication in the record as to the nature of these "changed circumstances." However, the Los Angeles Times reports that, in one instance, the officers found a side door open and were able simply to walk in, while in another the house was blocked off by cars, thus preventing use of the V-100. (Klein, The Ram at Rest: These Are Quiet Times for the LAPD's 'Battering' Vehicle, L.A. Times (Feb. 10, 1986) Home Ed., Metro Section, at p. 1.) The V-100 is also useless, of course, against "rock houses" located in multi-story buildings above ground level.
FN 3. Prior raids by coventional means on two other houses owned by Bryant -- including 13031 Louvre Street -- turned up weapons. The occupants of these houses did not, however, use these weapons to resist entry by the police. Moreover, the occupants were unsuccessful in their attempt to destroy the narcotics in their possession.
FN 4. Plaintiffs have repeatedly argued the fact no weapons were discovered in the course of the first three raids in which the ram was used as evidence that the LAPD's policies governing its use are constitutionally inadequate. However, it is well settled that "a search is not to be made legal by what it turns up. In law, it is good or bad when it starts and does not change character from its success [or failure]." (United States v. Di Re (1948) 332 U.S. 581, 595 [92 L. Ed. 210, 220, 68 S. Ct. 222].) Accordingly, paragraphs (6) through (9) summarize only those facts known to the LAPD at the time of entry on each of the four occasions on which the ram was used. The facts learned subsequent to entry are irrelevant.
FN 5. December 1983, two LAPD officers were seriously injured by gunfire during execution of a search warrant on a "rock house." The police admit, however, that in narcotics cases the danger of such armed resistance is not limited to raids on "rock houses," and there is no evidence in this record which suggests that officers have in fact encountered such resistance more frequently in raids on "rock houses" than in other raids.
FN 7. The LAPD concedes that there are fully effective, less dangerous means of gaining entry to all but "fortified" houses. It is only against such fortified premises as "rock houses" that they seek the right to use the V-100 in making an arrest or search.
FN 8. The alternatives available to the police include hand-held sledgehammers and battering rams, Kerry cutting cables, and the use of ropes and a fork-lift to pull off bars or pull down doors.
FN 9. All subsequent statutory references are to the Health and Safety Code unless otherwise indicated.
FN 13. In the interim, use of such premises to obstruct the police would be punishable under Penal Code section 148 which proscribes willful resistance, delay, or obstruction of a peace officer in the discharge or attempted discharge of his duties.

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