Opinion ID: 2629952
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: The Traffic Stop Detention

Text: [¶29] As stated in the general overview above, we concluded in Vasquez, 990 P.2d at 488, that article 1, § 4 requires all searches and seizures to be reasonable under all of the circumstances. We said, only unreasonable searches are forbidden, and whether or not a search is reasonable is a question of law to be decided from all the circumstances of a case. Id., at 487. Looking at our early decisions in cases where the State asserted a search without a warrant was proper merely because the citizen did not resist, we concluded in Vasquez that this Court historically considered such contentions as a threat to our constitutional safeguards and firmly disposed of the idea that a citizen's peaceful submission to a search amounted to a consent. Id. In reviewing past decisions, however, we found that a search of an automobile without a warrant was reasonable under some circumstances. We concluded that warrantless automobile searches are proper under article 1, § 4, when incident to lawful arrest and when there is probable cause for believing that a vehicle is carrying contraband or illegal goods. [¶30] In reaching this result in Vasquez, we rejected the bright line rule established in New York v. Belton, 453 U.S. 454, 101 S.Ct. 2860, 69 L.Ed.2d 768 (1981) that arrest justifies the search of a passenger compartment, including any open or closed container in it, without consideration of the privacy interest involved. We concluded the rationale for the Belton rule, i.e. the need for a bright line rule to effectively apply to the vast, national citizenry with which the U.S. Supreme Court must concern itself, did not apply in Wyoming. We found a narrower standard, one maintaining the requirement that a search be reasonable under all of the circumstances, more consistent with the historical intent of our search and seizure provision. Vasquez, 990 P.2d at 489. In the specific context presented in Vasquez, i.e. a vehicle search incident to an arrest, we said Wyoming's search and seizure provision provided greater protection than the federal provision. [¶31] In the broader context of searches and seizures in general and for purposes of considering Mr. O'Boyle's claim, which did not arise out of a search incident to arrest, what is important about Vasquez is our holding that article 1, § 4 requires that searches and seizures be reasonable under all the circumstances. It is this standard of reasonableness that governs our analysis under the Wyoming constitution. Thus, the determinative question in Mr. O'Boyle's case is the reasonableness of the detention under all the circumstances. [¶32] Having considered all of the circumstances, we conclude the detention inside the patrol car was unreasonable. Trooper Peech's extensive questioning of Mr. O'Boyle while waiting for dispatch, including questions about what he did for a living, how long he had been doing it, who was filling in for him while he was gone, how long his son had been in Boston, what college his son attended, what courses his son was taking, whether his son lived on campus, where he would stay while visiting his son, why he was driving rather than flying, where his daughter was, how many daughters he had, and the price of airfare from San Francisco to Boston, was not reasonable given all of the circumstances. Mr. O'Boyle was not under arrest and the State conceded Trooper Peech did not have a reasonable suspicion of other criminal activity. [6] Yet, four minutes into the stop, and before he was aware of Mr. O'Boyle's criminal history, Trooper Peech called for back-up assistance, specifically a canine unit. The unit arrived just two minutes later and parked directly behind the patrol car. By the time Trooper Peech returned Mr. O'Boyle's license and paperwork, issued the warning and told him to have a safe trip, Mr. O'Boyle had been detained and subjected to persistent and sustained questioning that unreasonably expanded the scope of the stop far beyond the speeding offense into a full-blown drug investigation. At no time during this phase of the detention did Trooper Peech ask Mr. O'Boyle for his consent to this type of questioning or detention. Under all of the circumstances, the detention inside the patrol car was unreasonable and violated article 1, § 4 of the Wyoming Constitution. [¶33] In reaching this result, we consider not only Vasquez and the older Wyoming cases analyzing our search and seizure provision ( George, 231 P. at 688; Crump, 246 P. at 244), we also consider matters of local and state concern. Saldana, 846 P.2d at 622. The State of Wyoming is bisected north and south and east and west by two major interstate highways. Interstate 80 provides drug traffickers with easy west to east access across the United States and is a well-known route for transporting drugs. DEA Microgram Bulletin, Vol. XXXVII, No. 9, September 2004; NDIC Narcotics Digest Weekly 2004; 3(35):3. The annual average daily traffic on I-80 near Cheyenne, where Mr. O'Boyle was stopped, is over 20,000 vehicles. 2002 Wyoming Vehicle Mile Book (WYDOT). Wyoming citizens operate a significant number of these vehicles. Traffic stops along I-80 are a routine part of the national drug interdiction program. Although precise figures detailing the number of searches conducted pursuant to consent are not  and probably can never be  available, there is no dispute that these type of searches affect tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people every year. Marcy Strauss, Reconstructing Consent, 92 Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 211, 214 (2001-2002). [7] [¶34] We previously have expressed disapproval of the use of traffic violations as a pretext to conduct narcotics investigations. Damato v. State, 2003 WY 13, ¶13, 64 P.3d 700, ¶13 (Wyo. 2003). In Damato, we joined in another state court's expression of concern about sanctioning conduct where a police officer can trail a targeted vehicle with a driver merely suspected of criminal activity, wait for the driver to exceed the speed limit by one mile per hour, arrest the driver for speeding, and conduct a full-blown inventory search of the vehicle with impunity. [8] Id., citing Arkansas v. Sullivan, 532 U.S. 769, 771-772, 121 S.Ct. 1876, 1878, 149 L.Ed.2d 994 (2001). Our location along a nationally recognized drug trafficking corridor likely results in a disproportionately large percentage of Wyoming's comparatively small population being subjected to what have become routine requests to relinquish their privacy rights by detention, invasive questioning and searches  all without reasonable suspicion of criminal activity other than the offense giving rise to the stop. While we acknowledge the importance of drug interdiction, we are deeply concerned by the resulting intrusion upon the privacy rights of Wyoming citizens. This concern, considered together with Wyoming's traditional interpretation of article 1, § 4 as requiring reasonableness under all the circumstances, provides further support for our conclusion that the detention in this case violated the Wyoming Constitution.