Opinion ID: 2313282
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Other Grounds for Reasonable Suspicion

Text: Although Lt. Ogden's tip may have provided the impetus for the probation officers to search Culver's home according to the probation officer's testimony, it was not the only reason for the search. Probation officer Cronin testified the probation officers decided to conduct the search of Culver's home for three reasons: (1) Culver had failed drug tests during probation; (2) Culver missed one curfew; and, (3) Cronin received information from Lt. Ogden that Culver possessed contraband. Thus, the second question for us to decide is whether the probation officers had reasonable suspicion to conduct, and would in the ordinary course have concluded, that carrying out their duties properly required an administrative search of Culver's dwelling. The State concedes that Lt. Ogden's tip catalyzed the immediate search of Culver's dwelling on October 16th. It, in effect, brought Culver up on their radar screen. But, the State also contends that, even if probation officers could not search Culver based on Lt. Ogden's tip, probation officers still had independent and reasonable grounds to search Culver's home. The missed curfew and the failed drug tests were known to probation officers well before October 16, however, yet in the ordinary course of business had provoked no administrative search. Probation officers saw no need to depart from routine and search Culver's dwelling before they heard from Lt. Ogden. It is readily apparent that the probation officers did not believe that their regulations governing the supervision of probationers, given those two factors alone, would warrant an administrative search of Culver's dwelling. Only after the introduction of Lt. Ogden's unfounded tip did probation officers decide to depart from routine and conduct an administrative search. Because probation officers apparently concluded, in the ordinary course of business, that there was no basis to search Culver's dwelling by reason of a single episode twenty minute delay in calling in from curfew and for improving drug test results, those two additional reasons failed to provide the reasonable suspicion needed to justify an administrative search of Culver's home. [20] When examining whether the failed drug test and the missed curfew, without more, could support reasonable suspicion that would justify an administrative search, it is important to remember that both incidents had already occurred without probation officers ever considering a search of Culver's person or home before October 16. Nor is there any evidence of record that probation officers in fact intended to search Culver in the foreseeable future, much less on or before October 16. That leads us inescapably to the conclusion that the probation officers did not consider the failed drug test and the missed curfew to be sufficient reasons under their protocols to search Culver's home on October 16. The question with which we are presented is not whether probation officers may have, hypothetically, at some time in the past or in the future concluded that reasonable suspicion existed to search Culver's home based on those two factors alone. Instead, the question is whether probation officers had reasonable suspicion to conduct this search on October 16. Without Lt. Ogden's call, we must conclude that the probation officers making this inquiry under the Department of Corrections mandated framework for analysis, would not have concluded there was a reasonable basis to conduct this search. Knowing that but for Lt. Ogden's call, the probation officers would not have searched on October 16, we find that Lt. Ogden's call, not an independent objective assessment of the information as required by Procedure 7.19 is what precipitated the search. Because we have concluded that Lt. Ogden's information did not form a basis for reasonable suspicion, we conclude that the probation officers had no basis under their mandated framework for analysis to believe there was reasonable suspicion to search Culver's home on October 16. The Probation and Parole Procedures, which empower and specify the duties of probation officers, do not specifically address whether the police may call upon probation officers to perform searches for which the police lack probable cause. The Court today divides, not because of constitutional debate, but instead over the conduct the Procedures authorize. The Procedures, or their enabling statute, 11 Del. C. § 4321, may, of course, be revised and amended to reflect the desired administrative or legislative policy if the result here does not align with the policymakers' views. At the very least, however, if the duly selected social policy choice is that probation officers are to use their probationary supervisory authority to search a probationer's dwelling where the police lack a reasonable basis to search, then that policy should be clearly, consciously, and openly adopted. Without reasonable suspicion determined in compliance with their duties under Procedure 7.19, the unlawfully seized evidence and the gun and Culver's oral statement inextricably linked to the seizure of the gun should have been suppressed. [21]