Case Name: UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Edward CARDONA, Defendant, Appellant
Court: United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 1990-05-10
Citations: 903 F.2d 60
Docket Number: No. 88-1537
Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Edward CARDONA, Defendant, Appellant.
Judges: Before TORRUELLA and SELYA, Circuit Judges, and BOWNES, Senior Circuit Judge.
Reporter: Federal Reporter 2d Series
Volume: 903
Pages: 60–75

Head Matter:
UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Edward CARDONA, Defendant, Appellant.
No. 88-1537.
United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.
Heard Jan. 10, 1990.
Decided May 10, 1990.
Francis X. Mackey, Providence, R.I., for defendant, appellant.
Margaret E. Curran, Asst. U.S. Atty., Providence, R.I., with whom Lincoln C. Almond, U.S. Atty., was on brief, for appel-lee.
Before TORRUELLA and SELYA, Circuit Judges, and BOWNES, Senior Circuit Judge.

Opinion:
SELYA, Circuit Judge.
This case requires us, for the first time, to explore the interstices and margins of the Court's opinion in Griffin v. Wisconsin, 483 U.S. 868, 107 S.Ct. 3164, 97 L.Ed.2d 709 (1987). Having completed this journey into fourth amendment jurisprudence, we hold that a parolee may be arrested in his own home by a police officer not possessing a judicial warrant when the police officer acts in good faith at the request of parole authorities who, in accordance with a parole regulation, have found reasonable cause to order the individual's detention as a suspected parole violator.
I. BACKGROUND
Defendant-appellant Edward Cardona, previously convicted of a felony in New York, was on parole in Rhode Island pursuant to an interstate parole compact. After defendant's Rhode Island parole officer reported problems, a parole violation warrant (PVW) was issued by the New York parole board. Issuance of the PVW did not require a finding of probable cause, but only a lesser showing, tantamount to reasonable cause, that Cardona had violated the terms of his parole. The PVW's terms authorized any person who could serve process to execute it. N.Y.Exec.Law § 259 — i(3)(a)(iii) (1982). Accordingly, the New York authorities forwarded the PVW to their Rhode Island counterparts.
When the PVW arrived in Rhode Island, the Rhode Island parole officer, following routine procedure, solicited the local police to assist in implementing it. The parties agree that the request was made in the ordinary course; in Rhode Island, parole officers are neither armed nor trained to effectuate arrests, and do not typically involve themselves in that activity. Indeed, the standing policy of the state administration is, and has been, that parole officers should not make arrests.
After securing teletype confirmation that the PVW was outstanding, the local police department acted. Unaccompanied by a parole official, three police officers went to Cardona's residence for the sole purpose of executing the PVW. Upon arriving there, they knocked on the front door (which was ajar), announced their presence twice over, and, hearing noises, entered the apartment. The officers found defendant squatting on the floor of a closet; next to him, in plain view, was a sawed-off shotgun. The officers arrested defendant and seized the gun.
A few months later, a federal grand jury in the District of Rhode Island indicted Cardona on two counts arising out of his custody of the weapon. Cardona moved to suppress the evidence. The district court denied the motion. Cardona thereafter pled guilty to being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g), preserving his right to appeal from the denial of the suppression motion. See Fed.R.Crim.P. 11(a)(2).
II. GRIFFIN REDUX
Griffin v. Wisconsin, 483 U.S. 868, 107 S.Ct. 3164, 97 L.Ed.2d 709 (1987), is our polestar. In an effort to measure its ultimate significance, we first address its essential aspects.
Joseph Griffin was convicted in a Wisconsin state court of resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, and obstructing an officer. He was placed on probation. Id. at 870, 107 S.Ct. at 3166. Under Wisconsin law, probation officers are permitted to search probationers' homes without a warrant as long as the officer obtains a supervisor's prior approval and has "reasonable grounds" for a belief that there is contraband on the premises. Id. at 870-71, 107 S.Ct. at 3166-67. Well into Griffin's probationary term, a local police detective informed Michael Lew, the supervisor of Griffin's probation officer, that he (the detective) suspected Griffin of secreting guns in his apartment. Unable to obtain the assistance of Griffin's probation officer, Lew went to the apartment with another probation officer and three policemen. Id. at 871, 107 S.Ct. at 3167. Although the callers had neither a judicial warrant nor probable cause, their visit complied with an administrative regulation permitting war-rantless searches of a probationer's home. Id. at 870-71, 107 S.Ct. at 3167-68. When Griffin answered the door, Lew identified the party and informed Griffin that they planned to search his apartment. During the inspection, a handgun was discovered. Id. at 871, 107 S.Ct. at 3167.
Griffin was charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon (itself a felony). After moving unsuccessfully to suppress the weapon, he was found guilty by a jury. Id. at 872, 107 S.Ct. at 3168. On appeal, the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the conviction, opining that the "reasonable grounds" standard for probationer searches satisfied the fourth amendment because of the lesser expectation of privacy-enjoyed by a probationer. State v. Griffin, 131 Wis.2d 41, 52-64, 388 N.W.2d 535, 539-44 (1986). The Court granted certiorari, 479 U.S. 1005, 107 S.Ct. 643, 93 L.Ed.2d 699 (1986), and thereafter affirmed.
The majority first reviewed the "special needs" exception to the warrant and probable-cause requirements imposed by the fourth amendment on most governmental searches and seizures. Noting that the Court had historically "permitted exceptions [to traditional fourth amendment standards] when 'special needs, beyond the normal need for law enforcement, make the warrant and probable-cause requirement impracticable,' " 483 U.S. at 873, 107 S.Ct. at 3167 (quoting New Jersey v. T.L.O., 469 U.S. 325, 351, 105 S.Ct. 733, 747, 83 L.Ed.2d 720 (1985) (Blackmun, J., concurring)), Justice Scalia concluded that the operation of a state probation system, and particularly the need for close and ongoing supervision of participants, presented just such a "special need." Id. 483 U.S. at 875, 107 S.Ct. at 3169. The dichotomous goals to which probation is dedicated — rehabilitation and public safety — coalesced to justify substantial restrictions upon probationers. Id. Hence, the special needs of the situation "permitted] a degree of impingement upon privacy that would not be constitutional if applied to the public at large." Id.
The Court likened the reduced-liberty status of probationers to that of parolees. Id. at 874, 107 S.Ct. at 3168 (citing and quoting Morrissey v. Brewer, 408 U.S. 471, 480, 92 S.Ct. 2593, 2599, 33 L.Ed.2d 484 (1972)). The Court emphasized that probation, as "a form of criminal sanction," disenfranchises the recipient of at least some rights enjoyed by law-abiding citizens, probation being "simply one point (or, more accurately, one set of points) on a continuum of possible punishments ranging from solitary confinement in a maximum-security facility to a few hours of mandatory community service." Id. Yet, although the existence of post-conviction monitoring allowed greater trespasses upon privacy than would normally be the case, the "permissible degree [of impingement] is not unlimited." Id. 483 U.S. at 875, 107 S.Ct. at 3169. The Court proceeded, therefore, to evaluate the extent to which "the special needs of Wisconsin's probation system make the warrant requirement impracticable and justify replacement of the standard of probable cause by 'reasonable grounds.' " Id. at 876, 107 S.Ct. at 3170.
The outcome of this evaluation proved to the Court's satisfaction that the situational "needs" were sufficiently "special." Justice Scalia wrote that a warrant and probable-cause requirement would interfere with the proper operation of the probation system, render it "more difficult for probation officials to respond quickly to evidence of misconduct and would reduce the deterrent effect that the possibility of expeditious searches would otherwise create." Id. (citation omitted). Throughout, the Court underscored the hybrid role of the probation officer, who, "while assuredly charged with protecting the public interest, is also supposed to have in mind the welfare of the probationer." Id. The absence of an un-qualifiedly adversarial relationship between probationer and probation officer allowed access to information otherwise unobtainable and served to make the probation officer the best available barometer for gauging the likelihood that the conditions of probation had been transgressed. Id. at 878-79 & n. 6, 107 S.Ct. at 3170-71 & n. 6.
Taking all of these factors into account, the Court decided that it was "both unrealistic and destructive of the whole object of the continuing probation relationship to insist upon the same degree of demonstrable reliability of particular items of supporting data, and upon the same degree of certainty of violation, as is required in other contexts." Id. at 879, 107 S.Ct. at 3171. On this basis, the Court found the Wisconsin regulation authorizing probation officers to conduct searches of a probationer's home without a judicial warrant and in the absence of exigent circumstances to be constitutionally sound. Id. at 880, 107 S.Ct. at 3171.
III. ANALYSIS
The issue before us is largely unclouded by extraneous considerations. It is undisputed that the PVW was validly issued; that New York's "reasonable cause" standard for its issuance was fulfilled and does not differ materially from Wisconsin's "reasonable grounds" criterion; that when the PYW was sworn out there was no "probable cause" for appellant's arrest in the classical sense, see, e.g., O'Connor v. Ortega, 480 U.S. 709, 724, 107 S.Ct. 1492, 1502, 94 L.Ed.2d 714 (1987) (plurality op.) (distinguishing between "probable cause" and "reasonable suspicion"); that there were no "exigent circumstances" justifying entry into the dwelling, see, e.g., United States v. Curzi, 867 F.2d 36, 41-42 (1st Cir.1989) (discussing parameters of doctrine); that just as Wisconsin probationers are deemed held in the state's legal custody, Griffin, 483 U.S. at 870, 107 S.Ct. at 3166, so, too, are New York parolees, see N.Y.Exec.Law § 259-i(2)(b) (1982); that Rhode Island law authorized police officers to arrest Cardona as a suspected parole violator and return him to New York, see R.I.Gen.Laws § 13-8-19 (1981); and that a New York statute also authorized police officers to execute PVWs, see N.Y. Exec.Law § 259 — i(3)(a)(iii) (1982). Appellant concedes that the shotgun was in plain view and therefore lawfully seized if the constables' entry into the apartment was valid. See United States v. Rutkowski, 877 F.2d 139, 140-41 (1st Cir.1989) (outlining "plain view" exception to warrant requirement). Last but not least, there is no suggestion that the PVW was trumped up as a subterfuge to permit police to invade appellant's home.
Having cleared away the mist, three potentially significant factual differences separate Griffin from the instant case. First, Griffin involved a probationer whereas this case involved a parolee. Second, the government actors in Griffin entered the dwelling bent on conducting a search; here, the intent was not to search but to detain. And finally, in Griffin the probation officer was physically present at the climactic moment, albeit accompanied by the police. Here, no parole officer was on the scene.
The first of these differences — that Car-dona was on parole whereas Griffin was on probation — cuts in favor of the government. Parole is meted out in addition to, not in lieu of, incarceration. It "is an established variation on imprisonment of convicted criminals." Morrissey v. Brewer, 408 U.S. 471, 477, 92 S.Ct. 2593, 2598, 33 L.Ed.2d 484 (1972). Moreover, violation of parole results in a return to jail and the completion of a previously stated sentence. Violation of probation results in the potential imposition of a jail sentence or, in some cases, in the execution of all or some part of a sentence previously imposed but suspended. On the Court's "continuum of possible punishments," Griffin, 483 U.S. at 874, 107 S.Ct. at 3168, parole is the stronger medicine; ergo, parolees enjoy even less of the average citizen's absolute liberty than do probationers. Cf. Faheem-El v. Klincar, 841 F.2d 712, 728 (7th Cir.1988) (en banc) (finding rational basis for Illinois procedures affording probationers greater protections than parolees).
The second distinction — lack of an intent to search — leads the dissent to draw what we perceive to be an entirely artificial distinction between "search" jurisprudence and "seizure" jurisprudence. Post at 70 - 71. In our view, the distinction possesses no functional relationship to underlying fourth amendment jurisprudence or interests, but serves the solitary purpose of descriptive characterization. That is, the span of possible searches overlaps, almost perfectly, with the span of possible seizures in the extent to which they, respectively, may or may not infringe upon fourth amendment interests. This span ranges from the most minimal intrusion upon a person's privacy to the most viola-tive, without regard to whether the intrusion takes the shape of a search or of a seizure. See, e.g., United States v. Martinez-Fuerte, 428 U.S. 543, 565, 96 S.Ct. 3074, 3086, 49 L.Ed.2d 1116 (1976) ("The degree of intrusion upon privacy that may be occasioned by a search of a house hardly can be compared with the minor interference with privacy resulting from the mere stop for questioning as to residence."). Given this categorical interchangeability of searches and seizures in terms of fourth amendment analysis, logic dictates that the conceptual and doctrinal underpinnings applicable to either category be equally applicable to the other category, at least a prio-ri; and the Court has approached fourth amendment issues accordingly. See e.g., id. at 561, 96 S.Ct. at 3084 (applying balancing framework of Camara v. Municipal Court, 387 U.S. 523, 87 S.Ct. 1727, 18 L.Ed.2d 930 (1967), to seizure case); Spinelli v. United States, 393 U.S. 410, 416-17, 89 S.Ct. 584, 589-90, 21 L.Ed.2d 637 (1969) (describing seizure case, Draper v. United States, 358 U.S. 307, 79 S.Ct. 329, 3 L.Ed.2d 327 (1959), as "suitable benchmark" and "relevant comparison" for determining legality of search); see also Lopez Lopez v. Aran, 844 F.2d 898, 902-05 (1st Cir.1988) (applying balancing test of "search" cases to airport stop); 1 W. La-Fave, Search and Seizure, § 3.1(b), at 544 (2d ed. 1987) ("It is generally assumed by the Supreme Court and the lower courts that the same quantum of evidence is required whether one is concerned with probable cause to arrest or probable cause to search.") (footnote omitted). If anything, we think entering the home to detain a parolee may well be less intrusive than searching his abode. Cf. Minnesota v. Olson, — U.S. -, -, 110 S.Ct. 1684, 1685, 109 L.Ed.2d 85 (1990) (purpose of rule that suspect should not be arrested in his home without an arrest warrant "was not to protect the person of the suspect but to protect his home from entry"); New York v. Harris, — U.S. -, -, 110 S.Ct. 1640, 1641, 109 L.Ed.2d 13 (1990) (similar). Nevertheless, in an effort to hold the balance steady and true, we assign minimal weight to the search/seizure distinction.
By far the most significant factual difference between the cases is the parole officer's absence when the police officers entered appellant's residence. If the parole officer had accompanied the lawmen, we believe that Griffin would unarguably apply to defeat appellant's suppression claim. See Griffin, 483 U.S. at 879-80, 107 S.Ct. at 3170-71 (approving warrantless search of probationer's home by probation officers with police present); see also United States ex rel. Randazzo v. Follette, 418 F.2d 1319, 1322 (2d Cir.1969) (upholding arrest of parolee in parolee's apartment by parole officers lacking a judicial warrant; also validating search incident thereto), cert. denied, 402 U.S. 984, 91 S.Ct. 1672, 29 L.Ed.2d 150 (1971). Appellant and our dissenting brother argue strenuously that the parole officer's absence removes the case from Griffin's doctrinal orbit. We agree that this appeal boils down to the constitutional significance of that fact, but we believe for a quadrat of reasons that Griffin forecasts the result we must reach.
1. The language of Griffin makes it abundantly clear that the Court was concerned about the standards influencing the selection of decisionmakers in particular contexts. The Court's focus was on the degree of security inherent in allowing a particular decisionmaker, i.e., a probation officer, to make a particular decision, i.e., whether a probationer's home should be searched, based on a particular (relatively modest) level of proof, i.e., "reasonable grounds." See, e.g., Griffin, 483 U.S. at 879 n. 6, 107 S.Ct. at 3171 n. 6 ("[o]ur discussion pertains to the reasons generally supporting the proposition that the search decision should be left to the expertise of probation authorities rather than a magistrate"). The Court did not lend any special salience to the identity of the person(s) executing the search, concentrating instead on whether a probation officer may constitutionally authorize a search "supported] by a lesser quantum of concrete evidence justifying suspicion than would be required to establish probable cause." Id.
The gist of the Court's opinion reduces to the choice between decisionmakers — probation official or judicial magistrate — regarding when, and for what reason(s), a probationer's home may be searched. The Court, concerned about the special needs of the probation system, believed that the Constitution left ample room for the former to call the turn. See id. at 876, 107 S.Ct. at 3169 ("A warrant requirement would interfere to an appreciable degree with the probation system, setting up a magistrate rather than the probation officer as the judge of how close a supervision the probationer requires."). Whether the decision, once reached, is realized through police officers, parole officers, or a tag team representing both camps, is peripheral to the Court's holding.
Furthermore, the other differences between this case and Griffin favor continued employment of the monitor qua deci-sionmaker. The need for oversight is presumptively greater in connection with parole as opposed to probation. See, e.g., People v. Burgener, 41 Cal.3d 505, 532-33, 224 Cal.Rptr. 112, 130-31, 714 P.2d 1251, 1268-69 (1986) (discussing reasons for heightened surveillance and supervision in parole setting). It follows inexorably that the ongoing relationship between parole officer and parolee must be more tightly enmeshed than that between probation officer and probationer. Authorizing an arrest rather than a general search leaves less to the discretion of the implementing officers. And the issuance of the PVW, if material at all, evidences a considered effort by the parole authorities, in a somewhat more structured fashion than in Griffin, to assure that the lowered threshold ("reasonable cause") was crossed.
2. We assume that, as was true in this case, those who implement a PVW will remain faithful to its scope, initiating no independent decisions about further searches or seizures. Put another way, we take as a given that the executors, whoever they may be, will serve merely as agents of the decisionmaker, doing what the decision-maker authorized, augmented only by the constitutionally permissible (such as seizing recognizable contraband in plain view). As discussed above, we think it is obvious that the Griffin Court shared, and proceeded on, this assumption.
We hasten to add that allowing police officers to act in an agentival capacity is not an open invitation to gamesmanship through which law enforcement personnel can circumvent the rigors of the fourth amendment. The law will not allow a parole officer to serve as a cat's paw for the police. See Latta v. Fitzharris, 521 F.2d 246, 249 (9th Cir.) (en banc) (plurality op.) (parole search may not be used as a "subterfuge for a criminal investigation"), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 897, 96 S.Ct. 200, 46 L.Ed.2d 130 (1975); Smith v. Rhay, 419 F.2d 160, 162-63 (9th Cir.1969) (where parole officer conducts warrantless search "not as the supervising guardian, so to speak, of the parolee, but as the agent of the [police]," fruits of search must be suppressed); cf. United States v. Jarrad, 754 F.2d 1451, 1454 (9th Cir.) (probation officer may not act as "stalking horse" for police), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 830, 106 S.Ct. 96, 88 L.Ed.2d 78 (1985). When and if the integrity of a challenged action is controverted, the dispute is determinable as a question of fact on a case-by-case basis. See United States v. Richardson, 849 F.2d 439, 441 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, — U.S.-, 109 S.Ct. 171, 102 L.Ed.2d 141 (1988). In this case, the question has been asked and de finitively answered: Cardona concedes that the police were acting strictly and solely at the parole board's behest. There is no evidence of contrivance. The fact that possible abuses might occur in some other, hypothetical case is insufficient reason to ditch the baby with the bath water.
Given this starting point, logic dictates that in the purlieus of parole the fourth amendment must concern itself more with who authorizes searches and seizures, and the bases on which they are authorized, than with who implements reached decisions. Cf., e.g., United States v. Ofshe, 817 F.2d 1508, 1513-14 (11th Cir.) (where search warrant duly issued but executed by federal agents other than person to whom it was directed, defect did not require invalidation of ensuing search), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 963, 108 S.Ct. 451, 98 L.Ed.2d 391 (1987); United States v. Pennington, 635 F.2d 1387, 1389-90 (10th Cir.1980) (upholding use of fruits where search warrant duly issued by federal magistrate but executed by state officers rather than by federal officer as required by Fed.R.Crim.P. 41(c)), cert. denied, 451 U.S. 938, 101 S.Ct. 2018, 68 L.Ed.2d 325 (1981). While the actual invasion of privacy does not occur until the search or seizure occurs, the constitutional protection is viable only to the extent that it restricts the authority responsible for making the search or seizure decision, prior to the time the decision crystallizes. As in traditional agency doctrine, the source of the decision to act, not the robotic agent who implements it, is ultimately responsible for the decision's consequences.
In sum, the method of the fourth amendment, and hence the jurisprudential underpinnings of Griffin, supports the conclusion that police officers and parole officers are fungible when the former serve as mere implementers of decisions already made by the latter. See Richardson, 849 F.2d at 442 (decision to authorize search more important than identity of those present during its course); United States v. Dally, 606 F.2d 861, 862-63 (9th Cir.1979) (parole officer may constitutionally authorize valid parole search by corrections official, notwithstanding parole officer's absence during search); cf. United States v. Polito, 583 F.2d 48, 56 (2d Cir.1978) (where PVW outstanding, law enforcement officer may detain parolee for purpose of assisting parole authorities).
The force of this postulate is not slowed by appellant's protest that parole officers are more "friendly" or less "adversarial" than police officers. That is so — although to a lesser extent, we think, than is true of probation counsellors. But, the observation is a two-edged blade: it is in part the very lack of unmitigated antagonism that justifies substituting the monitor for the magistrate qua decisionmaker. See Griffin, 483 U.S. at 878-79, 107 S.Ct. at 3170-71. And as to implementation, it seems fair to suppose that where, as here, the parolee is being arrested preliminary to incarceration for violating parole, the "friendly" nature of the parole officer's visit is considerably diluted. In all candor, we are aware of no "less adversarial" way to capture an individual and place him in custody. To the extent that police officers merely execute a PVW as agents of the parole board, they would seem to be neither more nor less unamiable than the parole officer himself.
3. It is by now familiar doctrine that "the Fourth Amendment does not proscribe all searches and seizures, but only those that are unreasonable." Skinner v. Railway Labor Executives' Ass'n, — U.S. -, 109 S.Ct. 1402, 1414, 103 L.Ed.2d 639 (1989). That is to say, "the permissibility of a particular practice 'is judged by balancing its intrusion on the individual's Fourth Amendment interests against its promotion of legitimate governmental interests.' " Id. (quoting Delaware v. Prouse, 440 U.S. 648, 654, 99 S.Ct. 1391, 1396, 59 L.Ed.2d 660 (1979)); see also Maryland v. Buie, — U.S. -, 110 S.Ct. 1093, 1096-97, 108 L.Ed.2d 276 (1990) (ratifying balancing test for fourth amendment purposes); Brown v. Texas, 443 U.S. 47, 50-51, 99 S.Ct. 2637, 2640-41, 61 L.Ed.2d 357 (1979) (similar); Lopez Lopez v. Aran, 844 F.2d at 905 ("judges must weigh the need to search or seize against the invasion the search or seizure entails"). In this respect, a parolee suffers no greater insult to his privacy when three police officers enter his home to do the parole board's bidding than when three police officers and a parole officer enter. The essence of the intrusion is the government's uninvited entrance onto private premises, cf Harris, — U.S. at-, 110 S.Ct. at 1641 ("[t]he warrant requirement for an arrest in the home is imposed to protect the home"), regardless of the entrance's personification; the mere incremental presence of a parole officer does not alleviate the insult.
We agree with our dissenting brother that the sanctity of the home is a highly relevant fourth amendment interest and that " 'physical entry into the home is the chief evil against which the wording of the Fourth Amendment is directed' ". Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 585, 100 S.Ct. 1371, 1379, 63 L.Ed.2d 639 (1980) (quoting United States v. United States District Court, 407 U.S. 297, 313, 92 S.Ct. 2125, 2134, 32 L.Ed.2d 752 (1972)); see also United States v. Curzi, 867 F.2d at 41. We also agree that this interest — which implicates the occupant's right to determine when the government shall or shall not intrude into his private domain — is a powerful one.
We part company with the dissent, however, on two scores. The first lies in our inability to comprehend how, considering the state's "overwhelming interest" in the expeditious retaking of parolees who cannot abide by the terms of their conditional release, Morrissey, 408 U.S. at 483, 92 S.Ct. at 2601, a resident's right to privacy is infracted more by a party of three policemen than by a party consisting of those same policemen plus an additional government agent. After all, no less an authority then the Supreme Court has told us straightforwardly that the "special needs" of a state's probation system can justify an intrusion into the home without either a judicial warrant or a demonstration of probable cause. See Griffin, 483 U.S. at 873-77, 107 S.Ct. at 3167-69. As we discuss below, the legitimate needs of the parole system are no less demanding. See People v. Huntley, 43 N.Y.2d 175, 181, 401 N.Y.S.2d 31, 34, 371 N.E.2d 794, 797 (1977) ("in any evaluation of the reasonableness of a particular search or seizure the fact of defendant's status as a parolee is always relevant and may be critical; what may be unreasonable with respect to an individual who is not on parole may be reasonable with respect to one who is"); see also United States ex rel. Santos v. New York State Bd. of Parole, 441 F.2d 1216, 1218 (2d Cir.1971), cert. denied, 404 U.S. 1025, 92 S.Ct. 692, 30 L.Ed.2d 676 (1972).
The second point of departure involves the dissent's adamantine insistence that, to paraphrase Gertrude Stein, an arrest is an arrest is an arrest. Like so many words used in the law, "arrest" has a protean quality. Apprehending a parolee — a convicted criminal — as a likely parole violator strikes us as considerably different than detaining a presumptively innocent citizen to face emergent criminal charges. (The cases cited by the dissent, of course, are all of the latter stripe, see post at 70-72, involving routine felony arrests.) The Court has made it crystal clear that this distinction is a vital one in determining the availability and scope of fourth amendment protection. See Griffin, 483 U.S. at 874, 107 S.Ct. at 3168; Morrissey, 408 U.S. at 480, 92 S.Ct. at 2599; cf. Potito, 583 F.2d at 55-56 (refusing to characterize arrest of parolee as an "arrest" for fourth amendment purposes). Ignoring Cardona's reduced-liberty status and the constitutional ramifications flowing from it effectively denies the teachings of the Griffin Court.
4. The capstone of Justice Scalia's majority opinion in Griffin was the conclusion "that the special needs of Wisconsin's probation system ma[d]e the warrant requirement impracticable" and justified the search based on "reasonable grounds," short of probable cause. Id. at 876, 107 S.Ct. at 3169. The instant ease posits an equally great, or greater, phalanx of special needs. The imposition of a requirement that a parole officer obtain a judicial warrant whenever a suspected parole violator is to be detained would, even more so than in the probation milieu, "interfere to an appreciable degree" with the state's post-conviction monitoring of defendants. Id. at 876, 107 S.Ct. at 3169. Sidetracking the swift deployment of the "deterrent effect" so important in post-conviction monitoring, see id., would be at least as harmful in connection with parole supervision. Similarly, if "the probation regime would . be unduly disrupted by a requirement of probable cause," id. at 878, 107 S.Ct. at 3170, the dislocations would be even worse in the parole context.
Though the objectives served by parole conditions are much the same as those served by conditions of probation, compare Morrissey, 408 U.S. at 478, 92 S.Ct. at 2598 (describing dual purpose of parole conditions) with Griffin, 483 U.S. at 875, 107 S.Ct. at 3168 (describing goals of probation conditions), parole caters, by and large, to a more hardened group of offenders, punished more severely for more imposing crimes. See Faheem-El, 841 F.2d at 728 ("As a general proposition, parolees have been convicted of more serious crimes than individuals who receive probation."); Burgener, 41 Cal.3d at 533, 224 Cal.Rptr. at 131, 714 P.2d at 1269 (on the whole, parolee, as contrasted with probationer, "poses a significantly greater risk to society"). A fortiori, making it "more difficult for [monitoring] officials to respond quickly to evidence of misconduct," Griffin, 483 U.S. at 876, 107 S.Ct. at 3169, is even riskier in the parole environment. Thus, the parole system will tolerate fewer tuggings at the tightly woven fabric of regulatory constraints and must perforce receive no less consideration under the fourth amendment than the Griffin Court accorded to the probation system.
What is more, requiring parole officers to accompany police officers during the execution of a PVW would itself be disruptive. Parole officers in Rhode Island are neither trained nor equipped to make arrests of delinquent parolees. Common sense suggests that retaking parolees is apt to be hazardous duty. Requiring a parole officer's presence whenever a suspected violator is to be detained would create unnecessary risks and foster needless complications. See Richardson, 849 F.2d at 442 ("requiring the probation officer's physical presence during every probation search or requiring close supervision of all probation searches, would unnecessarily interfere with the twin goals of probation: rehabilitation of the probationer and protection of society"). Given the situational needs which permeate the disciplined precincts of parole and parole arrests, and also given the institutional realities, we believe that imposing a judicial warrant requirement in this context would, to fall back on the Court's phrase, be "impracticable." Griffin, 483 U.S. at 876, 107 S.Ct. at 3169.
To recapitulate, we are convinced that the dissent construes the imprimatur of Griffin too narrowly and undervalues the extent to which Griffin provides support for the entire institutional structure of parole. It is simply untenable to constrict Griffin's focus to particular types of actors within the parole system. The concern of the Griffin Court with the special needs of administering a probation system was plainly a holistic concern. The reasons un-dergirding that concern become even more cogent in the parole environment.
In turn, the logic deriving from such holistic postulates dictates a functional approach to problems like the one currently before us. If police officers function merely as instruments of the parole system, not as law enforcers per se, they should be accorded the same privileges available to other operatives in the system. In the parole context, an arrester's identity for fourth amendment purposes should be strictly a function of his function, not of his title or usual duties. There is no constitutionally sufficient reason to deny to police officers what is permitted to parole officers when the former limit themselves to serving as functionaries within the system. To hold otherwise would both skew Griffin's holistic focus and discommode the delicate arrangement of policies and concerns which underlie that focus.
IV. CONCLUSION
We need go no further. The implications of our discussion for the case at bar are inescapable: Griffin governs. Given that the Rhode Island police did nothing more than implement the PVW in good faith as agents, and at the request, of duly constituted parole authorities, acting in pursuance of valid parole regulations, their entry into defendant's dwelling place, and their consequent seizure of contraband in plain view, was unexceptionable. The district court did not err in denying Cardona's motion to suppress or in predicating his federal conviction on the evidence obtained from his home.
Affirmed.
. The applicable New York statute provides in material part:
If the parole officer having charge of a paroled or conditionally released person . shall have reasonable cause to believe that such person has lapsed into criminal ways or company, or has violated one or more conditions of his parole . a warrant may be issued for the retaking of such person and for his temporary detention in accordance with rules of the [parole] board.
N-Y.Exec.Law § 259-i(3)(a)(i) (1982).
. The affirmance rested on narrower grounds than those supporting the Wisconsin Supreme Court's decision. Whereas the state court held that any search by a probation officer passes constitutional muster as long as the officer has "reasonable grounds" for opting to search, the Court dealt, more limitedly, with searches conducted pursuant to valid regulations governing probationers. 483 U.S. at 880, 107 S.Ct. at 3171. This limitation, however, has no significant bearing upon the applicability of Griffin to the case at bar. Here, appellant acknowledges that virtually all the salient actions occurred pursuant to state regulations or statutes and after an administrative finding of "reasonable cause" in accordance with New York law. He does not challenge the reasonableness of any component of the regulatory mosaic.
. We do not think it makes a difference that the incursion in Griffin was effected solely on the strength of a regulation applicable to probationers whereas in this case the entry was backed both by the regulatory scheme and the PVW. In both instances, information was obtained by the monitoring officer, whose recommendation for action was then considered and approved at a higher echelon. The parties do not claim that the standard of administrative review antecedent to the authorizing of further activity (in Griffin, the probation search; here, the parolee's detention) was materially lower in one case than in the other. The mere existence of a slip of paper — the PVW — is in our judgment not enough to disturb the essential equipoise between two fairly comparable situations.
. If the police stray in a given case — as, indeed, can happen after issuance of a judicial warrant — then ample remediation is available. See generally United States v. Young, 877 F.2d 1099, 1105-06 (1st Cir.1989) (discussing choice of remedies for overzealous execution of warrant).
. Richardson is apparently at odds with an earlier Ninth Circuit ruling that "searches of probationers not otherwise in compliance with the usual standards of the Fourth Amendment [must] be by, or under the immediate and personal supervision of, probation officers." United States v. Consuelo-Gonzalez, 521 F.2d 259, 266 (9th Cir.1975). Because Richardson, unlike Consuelo-Gonzalez, postdated Griffin, we find this tergiversation easily explicable.
.To be sure, the Griffin Court took some pains to differentiate between probation officers and police officers. But, we do not view that approach as inconsistent with our assessment. Taken in context, the distinction drawn by the Court relates primarily to the comparative qualifications of classes of officials to serve as deci-sionmakers, not implementers. See, e.g., Griffin, 483 U.S. at 876, 107 S.Ct. at 3169 ("Although a probation officer is not an impartial magis trate, neither is he the police officer who normally conducts searches against the ordinary citizen.") (emphasis supplied).
. The dissent argues that in this case the police had ample time to secure an arrest warrant, rendering invalid any claim that complying with traditional fourth amendment requirements was impracticable. That viewpoint distorts Griffin's "impracticability" prong. In Griffin, the Court inquired into the systemic impracticability of compelling those involved in implementation of a probation regime to obtain warrants. See Griffin, 483 U.S. at 876-77, 107 S.Ct. at 3169-70 (emphasizing institutional costs of forcing probation officers to comply with traditional fourth amendment criteria). The impracticability of obtaining a warrant in the particular case did not enter into the equation; indeed, Justice Blackmun argued unsuccessfully for much the same sort of particularized inquiry that Judge Bownes would have us undertake. See id. at 885, 107 S.Ct. at 3174 (Blackmun, J., dissenting). Whether it was feasible for the police to obtain a warrant in this particular case is irrelevant for the purpose at hand.