Opinion ID: 795796
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Transportation to the Scene of the Crime

Text: 15 Because the officers patted down McCargo only because they intended to transport him to the crime scene, the lawfulness of transporting a suspect to the crime scene as part of a Terry stop is placed in issue. Such a transportation is also subject to the reasonableness requirement of the Fourth Amendment, which governs not just the fact of the Terry stop but its scope. The reasonableness of a seizure under the Fourth Amendment is determined `by balancing its intrusion on the individual's Fourth Amendment interests against its promotion of legitimate government interests.' Hiibel v. Sixth Judicial Dist. Ct., 542 U.S. 177, 187-88, 124 S.Ct. 2451, 159 L.Ed.2d 292 (2004) (quoting Delaware v. Prouse, 440 U.S. 648, 654, 99 S.Ct. 1391, 59 L.Ed.2d 660 (1979)); see also United States v. Knights, 534 U.S. 112, 118, 122 S.Ct. 587, 151 L.Ed.2d 497 (2001) (The touchstone of the Fourth Amendment is reasonableness. . . .). The scope of a Terry stop must therefore be reasonable, but the methods police used need not be the least intrusive available. The question is not simply whether some other alternative was available, but whether the police acted unreasonably in failing to recognize or to pursue it. United States v. Sharpe, 470 U.S. 675, 686-87, 105 S.Ct. 1568, 84 L.Ed.2d 605 (1985); see United States v. Martinez-Fuerte, 428 U.S. 543, 557 n. 12, 96 S.Ct. 3074, 49 L.Ed.2d 1116 (1976) (rejecting least-restrictive-means analysis). 16 We have little trouble concluding that, in some circumstances, police may transport a suspect short distances in aid of a Terry stop. The Supreme Court has upheld such transportations, see United States v. Place, 462 U.S. 696, 706, 103 S.Ct. 2637, 77 L.Ed.2d 110 (1983); Pennsylvania v. Mimms, 434 U.S. 106, 109-119, 98 S.Ct. 330, 54 L.Ed.2d 331 (1977) (per curiam), and we have held that it is well established that officers may ask (or force) a suspect to move as part of a lawful Terry stop, United States v. Gori, 230 F.3d 44, 56 (2d Cir.2000); see also United States v. Tehrani, 49 F.3d 54, 61 (2d Cir.1995) (suspect taken to office to verify immigration status). 17 Because we have already held that the police may require a person temporarily detained under Terry to move to another place, the question is whether this transportation was reasonable. On the government's side of the scale is the strong interest in crime prevention and detection. Cf. Place, 462 U.S. at 704, 103 S.Ct. 2637. It was reasonable for the officers to believe that the victim might be able to identify the perpetrator. Taking McCargo to the crime scene could have immediately confirmed or dispelled whether he was a suspect. The fact that the victim had not seen any of the perpetrators was unknown to the officers. Having located a suspect and having good reason to think that he might have something to do with the crime, we think it reasonable for the police to decide to extend the Terry stop briefly to transport McCargo to the crime scene to see whether he could be identified by the victim. The inconvenience of doing so to McCargo, for the short time it would have taken, would present only a limited Fourth Amendment intrusion on McCargo's rights. See Michigan v. Summers, 452 U.S. 692, 700, 101 S.Ct. 2587, 69 L.Ed.2d 340 (1981) ([A Terry stop,] justified by special law enforcement interests[,] is not confined to the momentary, on-the-street detention. . . .). 18 It is true that alternative means of confirming or dispelling the suspicion surrounding McCargo might have existed. Assuming there was a witness who could identify the perpetrators, the police might have walked McCargo to the crime scene or even brought the witness to McCargo. However, we do not think the officers' plan to take McCargo to the crime scene in their patrol car was unreasonable. The officers could not know whether the victim was free to move either because of a physical incapacity or the exigencies of the continuing investigation. Moving the victim to McCargo likely would have taken more time and required the use of more scarce officer resources, because one or two officers would have had to remain with McCargo while others transported the victim. Alternatively, walking McCargo to the crime scene might have meant leaving the car unattended in a high-crime area. In short, taking McCargo to the crime scene by car was reasonable under the circumstances, both by way of resolving the suspicion surrounding McCargo and impinging as little as possible on his Fourth Amendment rights. 19 Our view that transportation to or from the crime scene under circumstances like these would have been reasonable is consistent with the views of three of our sister courts of appeals and several state supreme courts in holding that the police may transport a suspect for identification purposes as part of a Terry stop. See United States v. McCarthy, 77 F.3d 522, 531 (1st Cir.1996) (officers detained suspect in a police car and brought a witness to the suspect in an attempt to identify him); United States v. Dickson, 58 F.3d 1258, 1263-64 (8th Cir.1995) (same); United States v. Short, 570 F.2d 1051, 1054 (D.C.Cir.1978) (suspect transported to bank for show-up before witnesses); People v. Hicks, 68 N.Y.2d 234, 508 N.Y.S.2d 163, 500 N.E.2d 861, 866 (1986); People v. Bloyd, 416 Mich. 538, 331 N.W.2d 447, 453-54 (1982); People v. Harris, 15 Cal.3d 384, 124 Cal.Rptr. 536, 540 P.2d 632, 636 (1975). 20 Therefore, where the police have a reasonable suspicion that a person was involved in a crime, they do not violate the Fourth Amendment rights of a suspect if they stop the suspect and transport him a short distance to the scene of the crime in furtherance of a legitimate law-enforcement purpose. We also believe that the police may reasonably choose to transport the suspect in a police car where, as here, that decision would shorten the length of the Fourth Amendment intrusion.