Opinion ID: 3065289
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The “Special Needs” Doctrine & Child Sexual

Text: Abuse Investigations [10] Defendants also argue that, even if the Supreme Court’s decision in T.L.O. does not strictly control this case, T.L.O. stands more generally for the proposition that probable havior); Edwards v. Rees, 883 F.2d 882 (10th Cir. 1989) (student suspected of making a bomb threat); Cason v. Cook, 810 F.2d 188 (8th Cir. 1987) (student suspected of breaking into another student’s locker); Tarter v. Raybuck, 742 F.2d 977 (6th Cir. 1984) (student suspected of dealing drugs at school). 16318 GREENE v. CAMRETA cause and a warrant are not “irreducible requirement[s] of a valid search” or seizure under the Fourth Amendment. See T.L.O., 469 U.S. at 340. That much is quite true. T.L.O. belongs to a line of cases in which the Supreme Court has lowered traditional Fourth Amendment protections “when special needs, beyond the normal need for law enforcement, make the warrant and probable cause requirement impracticable.”10 Griffin v. Wisconsin, 483 U.S. 868, 873 (1987) (internal quotation omitted). Although defendants acknowledge that neither the Supreme Court nor this court has applied the “special needs” doctrine to searches or seizures of children during a child abuse investigation, they argue that the government’s “special need” to protect children from sexual abuse justifies a departure from both the warrant and probable cause requirements in a case such as this one.11 As noted above, we 10 Although the term “special needs” was first used by Justice Blackmun in his concurring opinion in T.L.O., see 469 U.S. at 351 (Blackmun, J., concurring), the doctrine is rooted in the Supreme Court’s decision in Camara v. Mun. Court, 387 U.S. 523 (1967), which addressed the constitutionality of San Francisco’s warrantless building inspection program. Since Camara, the Court has applied the doctrine in a number of contexts in which such “special needs” exist. See, e.g., Bd. of Educ. v. Earls, 536 U.S. 822 (2002) (drug testing of high school students participating in extracurricular activities); Vernonia Sch. Dist. v. Acton, 515 U.S. 646 (1995) (random drug testing of high-school athletes); Skinner v. Ry. Labor Executives’ Ass’n, 489 U.S. 602 (1989) (drug and alcohol testing of railroad employees involved in accidents); Nat’l Treasury Employees Union v. Von Raab, 489 U.S. 656 (1989) (drug testing of employees applying for certain Customs Service positions); Griffin v. Wisconsin, 483 U.S. 868 (1987) (search of probationers); New York v. Burger, 482 U.S. 691 (1987) (administrative inspections in closely-regulated industries); O’Connor v. Ortega, 480 U.S. 709 (1987) (workplace searches of public employees); United States v. Martinez-Fuerte, 428 U.S. 543 (1976) (traffic stops at border checkpoints). But see Ferguson, 532 U.S. at 84-85 (refusing to extend special needs doctrine to drug testing of pregnant women for law enforcement purposes); City of Indianapolis v. Edmond, 531 U.S. 32 (2000) (refusing to extend doctrine to police roadblocks aimed at detecting narcotics trafficking); Chandler v. Miller, 520 U.S. 305 (1997) (refusing to extend doctrine to drug testing of candidates for political office). 11 The federal district and circuit courts are split on the applicability of the “special needs” doctrine to investigations of child abuse. Compare Roe GREENE v. CAMRETA 16319 addressed a similar argument in Calabretta, holding that traditional Fourth Amendment protections apply to the seizure of a child from her home. We reach the same conclusion in this case, as we now explain. [11] The threshold inquiry in a “special needs” case is whether the government has identified some need, “beyond the normal need for law enforcement,” to justify a departure from traditional Fourth Amendment standards. Von Raab, 489 U.S. at 665-66; see also Ferguson, 532 U.S. at 74 n.7; Henderson v. City of Simi Valley, 305 F.3d 1052, 1056 (9th Cir. 2002). So, although the Supreme Court has “tolerated suspension of the Fourth Amendment’s warrant or probable-cause requirement[s] [when] there was no law enforcement purpose behind the searches . . ., and . . . little, if any, entanglement with law enforcement” in conducting them, Ferguson, 532 v. Tex. Dep’t of Protective & Regulatory Servs., 299 F.3d 395, 406-07 (5th Cir. 2002) (holding the “special needs” doctrine inapplicable given the extensive involvement of law enforcement in investigations of child abuse under Texas law); Tenenbaum, 193 F.3d at 606 (applying traditional Fourth Amendment analysis to searches and seizures made in the course of child abuse investigations); Franz v. Lytle, 997 F.2d 784, 791 (10th Cir. 1993) (holding “special needs” doctrine inapplicable to investigation of child abuse conducted by law enforcement); Good v. Dauphin County Soc. Servs., 891 F.2d 1087, 1093-94 (3d Cir. 1989) (applying traditional Fourth Amendment analysis); with Doe v. Bagan, 41 F.3d 571, 575 n.3 (10th Cir. 1994) (applying T.L.O.’s lesser standard of reasonableness to the seizure of a student during a child sexual abuse investigation); Wildauer v. Frederick County, 993 F.2d 369, 372-73 (4th Cir. 1993) (same); Darryl H. v. Coler, 801 F.2d 893, 900-02 (7th Cir. 1986) (applying T.L.O.’s lesser standard of “reasonableness” and holding the warrant and probable cause requirements inapplicable). In the Seventh Circuit, the appropriate standard of review under the Fourth Amendment turns on whether the student attends private or public school. Compare Michael C. v. Gresbach, 526 F.3d 1008, 1015 (7th Cir. 2008) (holding that caseworkers must comply with the warrant and probable cause requirements when searching and seizing students on private school grounds); Doe v. Heck, 327 F.3d 492, 512 (7th Cir. 2003) (same); with Darryl H., 801 F.2d at 900-02 (applying lesser standard of reasonableness to the same conduct on public school grounds). 16320 GREENE v. CAMRETA U.S. at 79 n.15, the Court hasn’t relaxed traditional Fourth Amendment protections when the main purpose of an ostensibly administrative search was to gather evidence for use in subsequent criminal proceedings, or when law enforcement personnel were substantially involved in the design and implementation of the administrative program. Indeed, “[n]one of [the Court’s] special needs cases have . . . upheld the collection of evidence for criminal law enforcement purposes.” Id. at 83 n.20; see also Edmond, 531 U.S. at 38. Rather, “[t]he traditional . . . requirements are waived . . . on the explicit assumption that the evidence obtained in the search is not intended to be used for law enforcement purposes.” Ferguson, 532 U.S. at 88 (Kennedy, J., concurring). [12] In this case, the presence of law enforcement objectives is evident. At the time of the seizure, police were actively investigating allegations of child sexual abuse against S.G.’s father and a police officer was present at S.G.’s interview. As courts faced with similar “dual-purpose” searches have noted, “disentangling [the goal of protecting a child’s welfare] from general law enforcement purposes” becomes particularly “difficult” in these circumstances, as we cannot allow “[o]ther societal objectives [to] justify a program that would systematically collect information for the police.” Roe, 299 F.3d at 406-07; see also Ferguson, 532 U.S. at 83 n.20; Edmond, 531 U.S. at 38, 41-42. Here, we are convinced that law enforcement personnel and purposes were too deeply involved in the seizure of S.G. to justify applying the “special needs” doctrine, for two primary reasons.12 [13] First, police were conducting an ongoing investigation of S.G.’s father, and Camreta requested that Deputy Sheriff Alford, a uniformed police officer carrying a visible firearm, 12 The facts of this case do not require us to decide whether the “special needs” doctrine would apply to an in-school interrogation of a child where there is no direct law enforcement purpose and no involvement of law enforcement personnel. GREENE v. CAMRETA 16321 accompany him to the interview. A state regulation required Child Protective Service workers to “[i]nterview the child out of the presence of other persons, unless the CPS worker believes the presence of a school employee or other person would facilitate the interview.” OR. ADMIN. R. 413-0150610(4) (2003).13 There are two apparent ways in which Alford’s presence might have “facilitated” the interview. One purpose may have been to gather evidence firsthand, which would clearly run afoul of the Supreme Court’s admonition that “[n]one of [its] special needs cases have . . . upheld the collection of evidence for criminal law enforcement purposes.” Ferguson, 532 U.S. at 83 n.20; see also Franz, 997 F.2d at 791. Or perhaps Camreta and Alford believed that “the threat of law enforcement intervention” would provide the “necessary leverage” to “facilitate” Camreta’s interview with S.G., reasoning that a nine-year-old girl would surely feel compelled to talk truthfully in the presence of a uniformed, armed police officer. Cf. Ferguson, 532 U.S. at 72. Either way, the decision to have Alford accompany Camreta to the interview constituted sufficient entanglement with law enforcement to trigger the traditional Fourth Amendment prerequisites to seizure of a person. [14] Second, we are mindful of the general rule that the constitutionality of a search or seizure cannot turn on the subjective intent of government officials. See Whren v. United States, 517 U.S. 806, 813 (1996). But the Supreme Court has allowed a “purpose inquiry in [the ‘special needs’] context [if] conducted only at the programmatic level,” cautioning that such an inquiry “is not an invitation to probe the minds of individual officers acting at the scene.” Edmond, 531 U.S. at 48. We therefore look to Oregon law to determine whether “a child protective services search is so intimately intertwined with law enforcement” as to render the “special needs” doc13 The regulations cited are those in effect at the time of the events in this case. There have been some changes since. See OR. ADMIN. R. 413015-0415(5) (2009). 16322 GREENE v. CAMRETA trine inapplicable. Roe, 299 F.3d at 407. Our review of Oregon’s statutory scheme convinces us that the involvement of law enforcement in this case is symptomatic of the broader entanglement of law enforcement and social services officials in the state’s investigation of child abuse. Under Oregon law, an investigation into alleged abuse begins when a mandatory reporter14 contacts either “the local office of the Department of Human Services” or “a law enforcement agency within the county.” Or. REV. STAT. § 419B.015.15 Once a report is received, the Department must notify a law enforcement agency, and vice versa. Id. Reports are then accorded priority based upon criteria, established by the department, that “enable[s] the department, the designee of the department or a law enforcement agency to quickly and easily identify reports that require notification within 24 hours after receipt.” § 419B.017. Either “the department or the agency shall immediately cause an investigation to be made to determine the nature and cause of the abuse of the child.” § 419B.020(1). “If the law enforcement agency conducting the investigation finds reasonable cause to believe that abuse has occurred, the law enforcement agency shall notify . . . the local office of the department,” which “shall provide protective social services of its own or of other available social agencies to prevent further abuses.” § 419B.020(3). Either the law enforcement agency or the department may also take protective custody of the child. § 419B.020(5)(a). If either an officer or a caseworker “has reasonable cause to 14 A “mandatory reporter” is “[a]ny public or private official having reasonable cause to believe that any child with whom the official comes in contact has suffered abuse or that any person with whom the official comes in contact has abused a child.” See OR. REV. STAT. § 419B.010. With certain exceptions, any official with such knowledge “shall immediately report or cause a report to be made” to DHS or local law enforcement. Id. 15 All the remaining citations in this paragraph are also to Oregon Revised Statutes. GREENE v. CAMRETA 16323 believe that the child has been affected by sexual abuse . . . and that physical evidence of the abuse exists and is likely to disappear, the court may authorize a physical examination for the purposes of preserving evidence . . .” § 419B.020(6). Moreover, any “person conducting an investigation” under the statute who “observes a child who has suffered suspicious physical injury . . . shall [i]mmediately photograph or cause to have photographed the suspicious physical injuries . . . and [e]nsure that a designated medical professional conducts a medical assessment within 48 hours . . .” §§ 419B.023, 419B.028. Once photographs are taken, the officer or caseworker “shall . . . place hard copies or prints of the photographs . . . in any relevant files pertaining to the child maintained by the law enforcement agency or the department.” § 419B.028(2)(b). [15] The Fifth Circuit, reviewing similar provisions for investigating child abuse under Texas law, held that such joint investigations were not “divorced from the state’s general interest in law enforcement,” because they functioned “as a tool both for gathering evidence for criminal convictions and for protecting the welfare of the child.” Roe, 299 F.3d at 40607 (quotation omitted). We reach the same conclusion here. Oregon’s statutory scheme makes no effort to distinguish between criminal investigations of child abuse and civil investigations to protect the victims of abuse. To the contrary, the provisions described above encourage entanglement between law enforcement and social service workers, by involving both police officers and caseworkers in the gathering and collection of evidence of child sexual abuse from the outset of an investigation. [16] We do not mean to express any negative judgment concerning the wisdom of Oregon’s policy. It may well be that fostering coordination and collaboration between caseworkers and law enforcement officers is an effective way both to protect children and to arrest and prosecute child abusers — each, of course, governmental activity of the highest 16324 GREENE v. CAMRETA importance. But we do hold that state officials using such a policy cannot thereby forge an exception to traditional Fourth Amendment protections for the criminal investigation of child sexual abuse, as they seek to do here. Again, “[t]he fact that the suspected crime may be heinous . . . does not provide cause for the state to ignore the rights of the accused or any other parties.” Wallis, 202 F.3d at 1130. This is not to say, of course, that the seizure of S.G. was unconstitutional “simply because, in the course of [investigating], an inspecting officer may discover evidence of crimes.” Burger, 482 U.S. at 716. Any time a government official suspects that a child has been abused, investigation of that abuse for child protection purposes may uncover evidence of a crime. Nor do we suggest that a caseworker conducting an investigation to ensure the welfare of the child is precluded from sharing the fruits of that investigation with law enforcement officers, who may subsequently use such information to prosecute the offender. See Ferguson, 532 U.S. at 80-81, 85; id. at 90 (Kennedy, J., concurring).16 [17] Rather, we hold, as we did in Calabretta, that “the general law of search warrants applie[s] to child abuse inves16 Mandatory reporting laws, which require public and private officials to contact the authorities if they have reasonable grounds to suspect that a child is being abused, see, e.g., OR. REV. STAT. § 419B.010, do not raise the constitutional concerns discussed in the text. As the Supreme Court carefully noted in Ferguson, mandatory reporters come across such information in the course of their normal business and do not intend to elicit or coerce such statements. See 532 U.S. at 78 n.13, 80-81; id. at 90 (Kennedy, J., concurring). Nothing in our opinion today would prevent a teacher, for example, from discussing suspected abuse with a student or from passing along any such information to social service workers. For “[w]hen a parent sends her child to school, she delegates some of her parenting responsibilities to school officials. Though she does not consent to overzealous investigators interrogating her children over the principal’s objection . . ., she should reasonably expect that school officials will speak with her child if the child raises serious concerns about her home life.” United States v. Hollingsworth, 495 F.3d 795, 802 (7th Cir. 2007). GREENE v. CAMRETA 16325 tigations.” Calabretta, 189 F.3d at 814. Once the police have initiated a criminal investigation into alleged abuse in the home, responsible officials must provide procedural protections appropriate to the criminal context. At least where there is, as here, direct involvement of law enforcement in an inschool seizure and interrogation of a suspected child abuse victim, we simply cannot say, as a matter of law, that she was seized for some “special need[ ], beyond the normal need for law enforcement.” Ferguson, 532 U.S. at 74 n.7. [18] In short, applying the traditional Fourth Amendment requirements, the decision to seize and interrogate S.G. in the absence of a warrant, a court order, exigent circumstances,17 or parental consent18 was unconstitutional. We follow the lead of our sister circuits and hold that in the context of the seizure of a child pursuant to a child abuse investigation, a court order permitting the seizure of the child is the equivalent of a warrant.19 17 Exigent circumstances permit a caseworker to seize a child without a warrant if the caseworker has “reasonable cause to believe that the child is likely to experience serious bodily harm in the time that would be required to obtain a warrant.” Rogers, 487 F.3d at 1294; see also Burke v. County of Alameda, 2009 WL 3739333 at -5 (9th Cir. 2009) (holding that a child’s statements during an interview gave the officer reasonable cause to believe that she was in danger of imminent sexual and physical abuse); Tenenbaum, 193 F.3d at 594. The exigent circumstances exception is not applicable here. Defendants waited three days to detain and interrogate S.G. after receiving the initial report from DHS, and then returned her to her parents’ custody after the allegedly incriminating interview. Such delays and actions undermine any claimed exigency. See Rogers, 487 F.3d at 1296; Tenenbaum, 193 F.3d at 595, 605. 18 S.G.’s parents did not consent to her seizure at school, as defendants did not notify them of the planned interview. The fact that defendants received permission from school officials to conduct the interview does not constitute valid “consent.” “The handing over of a child from a public school teacher to another State official . . . is not the equivalent of the consent of the parents.” Tenenbaum, 193 F.3d at 594 n.9; see also T.L.O., 469 U.S. at 336 (recognizing the limits of the in loco parentis doctrine in this context). 19 Here, for instance, Or. Rev. Stat. § 419B.045 specifically authorizes caseworkers to investigate reports of child abuse on public school prem16326 GREENE v. CAMRETA See, e.g., Tenenbaum, 193 F.3d at 602; Doe v. Heck, 327 F.3d at 517; Gates v. Texas Dept. of Protective and Regulatory Servs., 537 F.3d 404, 429 (5th Cir. 2008). We therefore reverse the district court to the extent that it held that Alford and Camreta had not violated S.G.’s right to be free from an unconstitutional seizure.