Opinion ID: 2600016
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: When a Traffic Stop Culminates in the Arrest of a Vehicle Driver, the Purpose of the Stop as to the Passengers Ends When the Officers Have Finished the Activities Incident to the Arrest

Text: ¶ 15 Mr. Baker argues that the police officers exceeded the lawful scope and duration of the stop by detaining the passengers once they had decided to arrest the driver. The State contends that police may lawfully detain passengers until all purposes of the stop have concluded. If the stop results in the arrest of the driver, they argue that passengers are lawfully detained until officers have concluded all actions incident to the arrest of the driver. We agree with the State. However, we find that the police had concluded all actions incident to the arrest of the driver when they detained Mr. Baker to await the arrival of the K-9 unit. ¶ 16 The United States Constitution permits three types of police stops: (1) An officer may approach a citizen at any time and pose questions so long as the citizen is not detained against his will; (2) an officer may seize a person if the officer has an articulable suspicion that the person has committed or is about to commit a crime; however, the detention must be temporary and last no longer than is necessary to effectuate the purpose of the stop; (3) an officer may arrest a suspect if the officer has probable cause to believe an offense had been committed or is being committed. State v. Johnson, 805 P.2d 761, 763 (Utah 1991) (internal quotation marks omitted). Generally, the officer's level of suspicion determines the allowable level of intrusion into the privacy of the stopped individual. Under Arizona v. Johnson , police may constitutionally detain passengers if they have probable cause or reasonable articulable suspicion of the driver's traffic violation or other criminal activity. 129 S.Ct. at 784 (holding that when an investigatory stop is lawfully based on the suspicion of the driver's vehicular violation, [t]he police need not have, in addition, cause to believe any occupant of the vehicle is involved in criminal activity). Thus, even though an officer has no suspicion at all regarding passenger criminal activity, the officer may still detain passengers during the course of the lawful traffic stop. Police have this unique authority to detain passengers absent any suspicion because traffic stops are brief and fraught with potential danger. Id. at 786-87. The United States Supreme Court noted that [t]he motivation of a passenger to employ violence to prevent apprehension of ... a crime ... is every bit as great as that of the driver. Id. at 787 (internal quotation marks omitted). ¶ 17 Once a traffic stop is made, the detention `must be temporary and last no longer than is necessary to effectuate the purpose of the stop.' Lopez, 873 P.2d at 1132 (quoting Florida v. Royer, 460 U.S. 491, 500, 103 S.Ct. 1319, 75 L.Ed.2d 229 (1983)). [T]he stop ends when the police have no further need to control the scene, and inform the driver and passengers they are free to leave. Arizona v. Johnson, 129 S.Ct. at 788. A court should not micromanage the details of a traffic stop to ensure that no actions of the police improperly extend the stop so long as the duration of the stop is reasonable under the totality of the circumstances. State v. Worwood, 2007 UT 47, ¶ 28, 164 P.3d 397 (noting that we will not engage in judicial second-guessing when evaluating the totality of the circumstances). There is no bright-line test that indicates an appropriate length for a traffic-stop detention; rather, we consider the totality of the circumstances surrounding the stop to determine whether the length and scope of the detention were reasonable. Id. For instance, officers may run a warrants check on the driver of the vehicle so long as it does not significantly extend the period of detention beyond that reasonably necessary to request a driver's license and valid registration and to issue a citation. Lopez, 873 P.2d at 1133. However, we have clearly stated that once the lawful purpose of the stop has concluded, the occupants of the vehicle must be released from their temporary seizure. Hansen, 2002 UT 125, ¶ 31, 63 P.3d 650. ¶ 18 In this case, the court of appeals held that the detention of the passengers became illegal as soon as the arrest was made. State v. Baker, 2008 UT App 115, ¶ 13, 182 P.3d 935. We disagree. Once Officer Robertson discovered that the driver's license had been suspended for drugs and decided to arrest her, he could still detain the passengers while he completed any tasks incident to the arrest, including paperwork that is customarily performed at the scene. After concluding the arrest, however, Officer Robertson was required to release the passengers unless he had reasonable articulable suspicion that they were engaged in criminal activity. ¶ 19 The lawful purpose of a traffic stop that results in the arrest of the vehicle driver is complete when all procedures incident to the arrest have taken place. At that time, officers must release any passengers who were detained incident to the detention of the vehicle. We now examine whether the officers had lawful justification to extend the stop in order to conduct a search incident to arrest. We then assess whether officer safety concerns justified the continued detention of the passengers. 1. Arizona v. Gant Prohibits Routine Searches Incident to the Arrest of a Vehicle Occupant ¶ 20 Prior to the recent United States Supreme Court decision in Arizona v. Gant, ___ U.S. ___, 129 S.Ct. 1710, 173 L.Ed.2d 485 (2009), issued after oral arguments had been completed in this case, officers could conduct a search of the passenger compartment of a vehicle whenever the driver was arrested. Knowles v. Iowa, 525 U.S. 113, 118, 119 S.Ct. 484, 142 L.Ed.2d 492 (1998); New York v. Belton, 453 U.S. 454, 460, 101 S.Ct. 2860, 69 L.Ed.2d 768 (1981). Although such a search was premised on protecting the safety of officers and preserving evidence of the crime, a police officer's right to conduct the search was not dependent on whether the arrestee could actually access the passenger compartment of the vehicle or whether the failure to search could actually result in the loss of evidence pertaining to the crime underlying the arrest. Knowles, 525 U.S. at 118, 119 S.Ct. 484. Under this framework, upon the arrest of a vehicle driver, law enforcement officers could lawfully detain vehicle occupants who were not under arrest and whom they did not suspect were involved in criminal activity until they had concluded their search of the vehicle incident to the arrest of the driver. ¶ 21 Gant did not overrule the Knowles and Belton line of cases, but it narrowed the situations in which officers can conduct a search incident to arrest to times when the arrestee is unsecured and within reaching distance of the passenger compartment at the time of the search or when the police could expect to find evidence of the offense for which the arrestee had been arrested. [1] Gant, 129 S.Ct. at 1719. While the Supreme Court framed its analysis as clarifying rather than overruling its holding in Belton, the practical effect of Gant is to prohibit searches of a vehicle incident to the arrest of a vehicle occupant absent additional justification. Id. at 1722-23; see also, id. at 1724-25 (Scalia, J., concurring). Because Gant represents a significant break from the prior bright-line rule authorizing a vehicle search incident to arrest under all circumstances, we asked the parties to provide us with supplemental briefing as to the effect of the Gant ruling on this case. ¶ 22 The State argues that Gant does not prevent officers from conducting a search incident to arrest when some of the vehicle passengers have not been arrested because officers still have a need to control the scene. Mr. Baker contends that Gant prevents officers from conducting routine searches of an arrestee's vehicle and that the presence of passengers does not affect this holding. We agree with Mr. Baker. Gant clearly holds that absent evidence-preservation concerns, [p]olice may search a vehicle incident to a recent occupant's arrest only if the arrestee is within reaching distance of the passenger compartment at the time of the search ... unless police obtain a warrant or show that another exception to the warrant requirement applies. Id. at 1723-24 (emphasis added). Gant does not limit this holding to situations where there are no passengers in the vehicle. ¶ 23 Under Gant, the officers in this case were not permitted to conduct a search incident to the arrest of the vehicle driver and thus had concluded the purpose of the stop when they completed processing her arrest. Both sides agree that the arrested vehicle driver did not have access to the vehicle after she was handcuffed and placed in the back of the police cruiser. And Officer Robertson's testimony makes clear that there was at least a minute delay between completion of the driver's arrest and the arrival of the K-9 unit. Prior to Gant, officers could have lawfully detained the passengers after processing the arrest in order to conduct a search of the arrestee's vehicle regardless of actual officer safety or evidence preservation concerns. But under the new interpretation of Belton announced in Gant, the officers were required to release the passengers, including Mr. Baker, when they finished processing the arrest unless they had reasonable articulable suspicion that the passengers were engaged in or about to be engaged in criminal activity. ¶ 24 The State argues that we should not apply Gant retroactively because it represents a clear break from prior Supreme Court precedent. But Griffith v. Kentucky eliminated the clear break exception to retroactive application of newly declared constitutional rules for cases pending on direct review. 479 U.S. 314, 328, 107 S.Ct. 708, 93 L.Ed.2d 649 (1987). [F]ailure to apply a newly declared constitutional rule to criminal cases pending on direct review violates basic norms of constitutional adjudication. Id. at 322, 107 S.Ct. 708. Because Mr. Baker's case is here on direct review, we are required to apply Gant. 2. Officer Safety Did Not Justify Continued Detention ¶ 25 The State also argues that even if the officers were not permitted to detain Mr. Baker, at the time the dog sniff occurred, the officers had reasonable articulable suspicion that he may be armed and dangerous, which meant the purposes of the stop were not complete until the officers had frisked Mr. Baker to ensure officer safety. We disagree. ¶ 26 During a lawful traffic stop, officers may conduct a pat-down search of the driver and other vehicle occupants upon reasonable suspicion that they may be armed and dangerous. Arizona v. Johnson, 129 S Ct. at 787 (internal quotation marks omitted). As with all level two Terry stops, officers must `diligently pursue[ ] a means of investigation that [is] likely to confirm or dispel their suspicions quickly.' Worwood, 2007 UT 47, ¶ 28, 164 P.3d 397 (quoting United States v. Sharpe, 470 U.S. 675, 686, 105 S.Ct. 1568, 84 L.Ed.2d 605 (1985)). ¶ 27 The State urges us to find that the officers' reasonable belief that Mr. Baker and his fellow passengers were armed and dangerous justified continued detention to allow the officers to conduct a search of the passengers at the time of the officers' choosing. In support of this argument, they point to the lateness of the hour and the unusual number of knives collected from the vehicle occupants. In order to determine whether the officers illegally extended the time of Mr. Baker's detention, we need not address whether these factors provided the officers with reasonable suspicion to conduct a protective pat-down search of the vehicle occupants because the officers did not conduct such a search during the lawful duration of the stop. Rather, the officers detained Mr. Baker without searching him while they waited for the K-9 unit and conducted a dog sniff of the exterior of the vehicle prior to conducting any search. Reasonable belief that an individual is armed and dangerous justifies a protective pat-down search, not an extended detention. Thus, even if the officers had a reasonable belief that Mr. Baker was armed and dangerous, they illegally prolonged his detention by not taking steps to confirm or dispel this suspicion.