Opinion ID: 2708650
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Search of the Locked Case

Text: Opening the locked compact disc case was a significant step beyond the search authorized by Buie. The case was obviously too small to be hiding a person, the case itself was innocuous, and although Floriani averred that he thought the weight and feel of the case was consistent with a gun being inside, that was at most a very good guess—as the district court pointed out, the case could have contained almost anything.9 9 Even if the gun had been in plain view, there would be a separate question whether the Fourth Amendment permitted the seizure of the gun, which Sutterfield lawfully possessed. But we address the legitimacy of the (continued...) 48 No. 12-2272 The defendants’ brief is conspicuously devoid of citation to any authority that justified the search of the locked case.10 Even 9 (...continued) seizure separately below. At this juncture, we are concerned solely with the decision to search the compact disc case, which was both closed and locked. 10 The defendants cite State v. Gocken, 857 P.2d 1074 (Wash. Ct. App. 1993), as authority supporting a community-caretaking search of the compact disc case. Defendants’ Br. 23. As Gocken does not address the search of a closed bag or container, the defendants probably mean to cite State v. Gray, No. 38406–6-1, 1997 WL 537861, at  (Wash. Ct. App. Sep. 2, 1997) (unpublished, nonprecedential decision), a case in which the court sustained the search of the defendant’s tote bag (where both drugs and money were discovered) as a legitimate exercise of the community caretaking function. The police encounter with Gray had begun as a safety and welfare check triggered by her erratic behavior. She held the officers at bay for 30 minutes, holding a knife to her throat and threatening to kill herself; she also made a number of delusional statements. When informed that she was being taken to the hospital, Gray asked if she could take her tote bag with her. At that point an officer informed her that he would have to search the bag first. The court concluded that the search was justified on safety grounds, to ensure that there was no weapon or other item in the bag that Gray might use to harm herself. Gray is quite similar in that respect to State v. Tilley, No. 00-2540-CR, 2001 WL 942608, at - (Wis. Ct. App. Aug. 21, 2001) (unpublished, nonprecedential decision), which upheld a search of the defendant’s purse and bag (in which marijuana and drug paraphernalia were found). A police officer had taken an intoxicated and despondent Tilley to the hospital, where she began to say that she was thinking about killing herself and had attempted to do so in the past. Those remarks led the officer to take Tilley into protective custody pursuant to section 51.15 for an emergency mental health evaluation and to search her bags for anything she might use to harm herself or others. The court held that the community caretaker exception justified the search. Both cases are distinct from this case in the sense that they involved an acute need to ensure that the (continued...) No. 12-2272 49 the Wisconsin cases that extend the community caretaking doctrine to dwellings do not go so far as to endorse full searches of those dwellings and their contents. As our discussion below will reveal, those cases authorize safety-related sweeps akin to that here, and the seizure of contraband that is in plain view, but no more. It may be possible to construct an argument that when police lawfully enter a home to address the possibility that the occupant may harm herself—and particularly where, as here, they have reason to believe the person in question owns a firearm (as the gun holster Sutterfield’s physician noticed suggested she did)—the police have the authority to search the premises, including closed containers, for firearms. Cf. Cady v. Dombrowski, supra, 413 U.S. 433, 93 S. Ct. 2523 (sustaining warrantless inventory search of locked automobile trunk for defendant’s service revolver for safety reasons); Stricker v. Tp. of Cambridge, 710 F.3d 350, 362 (6th Cir. 2013) (in case of reported drug overdose, sustaining warrantless search of house, including closed drawers and cabinets, for clues as to what drug(s) occupant may have ingested); Mora v. City of Gaithersburg, Md., 519 F.3d 216, 225-26 (4th Cir. 2008) (Wilkinson, J.) (in case of reported comments by plaintiff to hotline operator that he was suicidal, that he could understand shooting people at work, that he had weapons in his apart- 10 (...continued) detained individual did not have access to a weapon or other implement of harm in her belongings. By contrast, Sutterfield never asked to take the compact disc case with her to the hospital, so there was no immediate need to search the case in order to protect both her and the individuals who would be transporting and then examining her during the period of her emergency detention. 50 No. 12-2272 ment, and that he “might as well die at work,” sustaining warrantless search of plaintiff’s luggage, van, and apartment—including locked rooms, gun safes, and filing cabinets—even after plaintiff had been seized and handcuffed, in order to determine scope of threat potentially posed by plaintiff). It bears noting, however, that this would be an argument for license to conduct virtually a top-to-bottom search of the home, as almost any closet, drawer, or container theoretically could contain a handgun (or other potential implements of self-harm). In any case, the defendants have not developed such an argument here. We therefore proceed on the assumption that the search of the locked compact disc case was unlawful. Sutterfield had a privacy interest in the contents of the case regardless of whether the police were searching the case for a law enforcement purpose or solely for purposes of protecting Sutterfield from harm. See Camara, 387 U.S. at 530, 87 S. Ct. at 1732 (“It is surely anomalous to say that the individual and his private property are fully protected by the Fourth Amendment only when the individual is suspected of criminal behavior.”); Dubbs v. Head Start, Inc., 336 F.3d 1194, 1206 (10th Cir. 2003) (McConnell, J.) (“The focus of the Amendment is … on the security of the person, not the identity of the searcher or the purpose of the search.”); Doe v. Heck, 327 F.3d 492, 509 (7th Cir. 2003) (Fourth Amendment applies to intrusions during civil as well as criminal investigations). Even if the police had a legitimate interest in securing any weapons that were in plain view or that were in a place obviously meant for gun storage, such as a gun safe (a point we address below), nothing more than a hunch supported the notion that a gun might be inside No. 12-2272 51 the compact disc case. Moreover, Sutterfield was already in police custody at the time the case was opened and was about to be transported from her home for evaluation by a mental health profession. At that point in time, she posed no immediate danger to herself. Still, for the reasons we discuss below in the qualified immunity portion of our analysis, even if the search of the case was unlawful, we believe that the police officers had ample reason to believe that it was permissible as a legitimate safety measure under the circumstances confronting them. E. Seizure of the Gun and Concealed-Carry Licenses
Our assumption that the search of the locked case containing the gun violated the Fourth Amendment requires a similar assumption as to the seizure of the gun. Cf. Wong Sun v. United States, supra, 371 U.S. at 484-86, 83 S. Ct. at 416 (evidence seized as a result of an unlawful search is fruit of the poisonous tree); United States v. Jeffers, 342 U.S. 48, 52, 72 S. Ct. 93, 95 (1951) (“The search and seizure are … incapable of being untied.”), overruled on other grounds by Rakas v. Illinois, 439 U.S. 128, 98 S. Ct. 421 (1978). Nonetheless, because the reasons for the seizure have a bearing on our qualified immunity analysis, it is worth spending a few moments discussing the competing interests implicated by the seizure. Officer Floriani’s instinct to seize the gun in order to remove from the house a weapon that Sutterfield might use to harm herself was natural and understandable. (Sutterfield’s empty gun holster and her remark to her doctor, after all, suggested that if she did do herself harm, she would do so with 52 No. 12-2272 a gun.) Nonetheless, Sutterfield had a legal right to possess the gun. And, again, once she was in police custody, there was no possibility that she was going to harm herself with the gun either at that moment or during her ensuing commitment for a mental health evaluation. Moreover, Floriani’s concern as to what might happen if doctors decided to release Sutterfield after evaluating her poses a conundrum: Certainly there was a possibility that Sutterfield might again (or still) harbor suicidal thoughts; yet, she presumably would be released only if medical experts decided that she did not pose an immediate danger to herself. So although removing the gun from the house seems like a logical step to take to protect Sutterfield from self-harm, the possibility of her release tends to negate the notion that she needed such protection. Moreover, if the prospect of Sutterfield’s commitment for a mental health evaluation justified the seizure of a gun, would it also have justified the removal of other items that Sutterfield might use to harm herself, such as knives and potentially lethal medications? These are not easy questions to answer. The Fourth Circuit, when confronted with somewhat similar circumstances, cautioned against “slic[ing] the situation too finely and employ[ing] hindsight too readily to actions aimed … at heading off a human tragedy that, once visited, could not be redeemed or taken back.” Mora v. City of Gaithersburg, Md., supra, 519 F.3d at 228. Recall that the plaintiff in Mora was seized on an emergency basis after he indicated to a healthcare hotline operator that he was suicidal and made remarks suggesting that he might kill himself at work and take the lives of his co-workers in the process. After he was dispatched to a hospital for an emergency mental health evaluaNo. 12-2272 53 tion, the police, without a warrant, seized the many (lawfullypossessed) guns they had found in his home for safekeeping. The plaintiff argued that this step was logically unjustified, given that the state’s involuntary commitment statute did not authorize his release if, as was feared, he posed a danger to himself or others. The Fourth Circuit rejected this contention: This argument implies that once police transferred Mora to a psychiatrist, the responsibility for ensuring public safety passed to the psychiatrist as well; the officers could wash their hands of the situation, their job done. But protecting public safety is why police exist, and nothing in Maryland’s involuntary admission statute supports the remarkable suggestion that, by handing Mora over to doctors, the officers relinquished authority over the thing for which they are under law chiefly responsible. A psychological evaluation would not change what the officers already knew: that Mora was unstable and heavily armed, and a risk to himself and others. … Id. For similar reasons the court rejected the notion that once Mora was on his way to the hospital, the police should have sought a warrant before seizing his guns, as there was no longer an emergency justifying warrantless action. [W]e are unwilling to say the emergency that brought on the seizure disappeared as quickly as Mora would have us think. The officers were entitled to take into account the nature of the threat that led to their presence at the scene, and the corroborating fact of a verita54 No. 12-2272 ble fortress of weapons and ammunition they found when they arrived. Moreover, in the rapidly unfolding series of events, the officers could not be sure of exactly what it was they confronted. They had no way of knowing whether confederates might possess access to Mora’s considerable store of firearms, or whether Mora himself might return to the apartment more quickly than expected and carry out some desperate plan. … Id. To be sure, there are significant differences between the facts presented in Mora and those presented here: Sutterfield never threatened anyone’s life but her own, and so far as the record reveals, she possessed just one (real) gun rather than the “veritable fortress of weapons and ammunition” that the police discovered in Mora. But the essential point that the Fourth Circuit made in Mora is nonetheless relevant here: The police officers who took Sutterfield into custody had a legitimate public safety interest in her health, and although they knew that she would be evaluated by mental health professionals pursuant to section 51.15, they could not be sure what would happen next. It was natural, logical, and prudent for them to believe that her firearm should be seized for safekeeping until such time as she was evaluated and it was clear that she no longer posed a danger to herself.11 11 In the event professionals determined that Sutterfield indeed did pose a danger to herself (or others), one consequence of that finding might have been a judicial order prohibiting her from possessing a firearm and directing the seizure of any firearm owned by her. See Wis. Stat. § 51.20(13)(cv)(1). No. 12-2272 55 An equally persuasive justification for the seizure of the gun is the one articulated by Sergeant Berken, that the gun might otherwise be accessible to Sutterfield’s son during her absence from the house. The police knew that Sutterfield had a son, but they did not know where he was or whether he might have unsupervised access to Sutterfield’s home in her absence. Neither did they know, nor could they have known, how long Sutterfield might be detained nor who might have access to the house during that time. It was arguably prudent to remove the gun from the home as a prophylactic measure during Sutterfield’s absence. Cf. United States v. Harris, 2014 WL 1356822, at  & n.4 (8th Cir. Apr. 4, 2014) (community caretaking doctrine justified temporary seizure of gun seen falling out of pocket of man sleeping in bus terminal, given danger exposed and unguarded firearm posed to public, including risk that a child or devious adult might take the gun). There may have been alternatives, but removing and securing the firearm was an obvious and reasonable measure. One need only imagine the public outcry that would have taken place had the police left the gun where it was and had Sutterfield returned home and then used the gun to take her own life, or had her son taken the gun in her absence and used it to harm himself or others, to see the wisdom in what the police did. Milwaukee does have in place a procedure, which Sutterfield ultimately used, to regain possession of the gun. No issue is raised here as to the adequacy of that procedure. So we are presented solely with a dispute as to the seizure of the gun at the time Sutterfield was taken into custody and transported for evaluation, rather than questions as to the timeliness and 56 No. 12-2272 efficacy of the process that Sutterfield ultimately employed to obtain the return of her gun. Finally, Sutterfield has argued that even if the seizure of the gun was lawful, the seizure of her concealed-carry licenses was not. But on the facts presented to us, the seizure of the licenses does not present a separate issue. We can imagine that Sutterfield might have been able to obtain another firearm while she was awaiting the return of the seized gun; she may even have owned other guns not seized by the police. The seizure of the licenses did not preclude her from possessing those guns, however. They simply prevented her from carrying those weapons in a concealed fashion in various states other than Wisconsin. Sutterfield has not developed any argument as to the ways in which her temporary inability to carry a concealed weapon in other states, as distinct from the seizure of her firearm, harmed her. On this record, any injury inflicted by the seizure of the licenses was de minimis, and we need not explore this issue further. We began this discussion with an assumption that, if the search of the case containing the gun was conducted in violation the Fourth Amendment, the seizure of the gun itself was also contrary to the Fourth Amendment. But there are, as we have gone on to note, powerful arguments in favor of the temporary seizure of the gun as a prudential measure; these arguments figure prominently in our qualified immunity analysis below. For now it bears emphasis that our assumptions that the search for and seizure of the gun were inconsistent with the Fourth Amendment are just that—assumptions. We reserve a firm ruling on the merits of these issues for a case in which the arguments are better developed and supported. No. 12-2272 57
Sutterfield has separately argued that the seizure of her firearm violated her Second Amendment rights. She reasons that apart from her property interest in the gun, the Supreme Court’s decisions in District of Columbia v. Heller, supra, 554 U.S. 128 S. Ct. 2783, and McDonald v. City of Chicago, Ill., supra, 130 S. Ct. 3020, recognize her right to possess a gun in the home for purposes of self-defense. See also Moore v. Madigan, 702 F.3d 933 (7th Cir. 2012) (2-1 decision) (holding that Second Amendment right to bear arms for self-defense extends beyond home), reh’g en banc denied over dissent, 708 F.3d 901 (7th Cir. 2013). The seizure deprived her of that right in addition to her Fourth Amendment right not to have the gun taken from her without probable cause, she reasons. Whether and to what extent the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to possess a particular gun (and limits the power of the police to seize it absent probable cause to believe it was involved in a crime) is an issue that is just beginning to receive judicial attention. Heller itself recognizes that the right to possess a firearm secured by the Second Amendment “is not unlimited.” 554 U.S. at 626, 128 S. Ct. at 2816. The Eighth Circuit, having concluded that the plaintiff’s Fourteenth Amendment right to due process was violated by the authorities’ refusal to return his gun once the legal basis for seizing it had evaporated, found no independent violation of the plaintiff’s Second Amendment right to possess the gun. Walters v. Wolf, 660 F.3d 307, 317-18 (8th Cir. 2011). Although the court confined its ruling to the facts and did not rule out the possibility that, under different circumstances, the seizure 58 No. 12-2272 of a gun might constitute a Second Amendment violation, id. at 318, it reasoned that where the plaintiff had been able to vindicate his interest in “a meaningful procedural mechanism for return of his lawfully seized firearm,” by way of the due process clause, id. at 317, the seizure of one particular firearm did not otherwise interfere with his Second Amendment interests: “The defendants’ policy and action affected one of Walter’s firearms, which was lawfully seized. The defendants did not prohibit Walters from retaining or acquiring other firearms.” Id. at 318 (emphasis in original). Cf. Houston v. City of New Orleans, 682 F.3d 361, 363-64 (5th Cir. 2012) (per curiam) (remanding to district court for determination whether state law permitted state officials to retain plaintiff’s handgun following entry of nolle prosequi on charges against him, as determination that state law compelled return of gun would render it unnecessary to decide whether defendants violated plaintiff’s Second Amendment rights by refusing to return gun to him); see generally John L. Schwab & Thomas G. Sprankling, Houston, We Have a Problem: Does the Second Amendment Create a Property Right to a Specific Firearm?, 112 COLUM. L. REV. SIDEBAR 158 (2012) (agreeing that Second Amendment does not encompass right to possess a specific firearm, criticizing lack of analytic rigor in judicial decisions to date on this subject, and proposing cautious, minimalist approach to determining scope of Second Amendment). This is not an issue that we have addressed and it is not one that we will address here. Beyond a bare-boned contention that the seizure violated her Second Amendment rights, Sutterfield has not developed a cogent argument as to the reach and application of the Second Amendment in the law enforcement No. 12-2272 59 and community caretaking context. The issue is a sensitive one, as it implicates not only the individual’s right to possess a firearm, but the ability of the police to take appropriate action when they are confronted with a firearm that may or may not be lawfully possessed, and which, irrespective of the owner’s right to possess the firearm, may pose a danger to the owner or others. We do reiterate that Milwaukee has a procedure by which a citizen whose lawfully-possessed gun has been seized may seek its return. Sutterfield availed herself of that procedure and has not contested its adequacy in this appeal. This too counsels against addressing the merits of Sutterfield’s Second Amendment claim. Cf. Houston, 682 F.3d at 364. F. Qualified Immunity Qualified immunity shields a government official from suit when the official is performing a discretionary function and his conduct does not violate clearly established rights of which a reasonable person would have known. Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818, 102 S. Ct. 2727, 2738 (1982); see also, e.g., Volkman v. Ryker, 736 F.3d 1084, 1089-90 (7th Cir. 2013). Sutterfield concedes that all but one of the police actions at issue in this case were discretionary acts that are potentially subject to qualified immunity. The one action she asserts was not discretionary was the seizure of her person pursuant to section 51.15. This assertion is based largely on Hewitt’s and Berken’s testimony that they were going to execute the statement of emergency detention by taking Sutterfield into custody regardless of what transpired when they located her and gained access to her home. Sutterfield reads this testimony 60 No. 12-2272 as proof that the decision to seize her was not discretionary. She contradicts herself on this point, however, when she argues that the police officers who seized her should have realized that section 51.15 itself is flawed—the implication being that they could and should have declined to implement the statement of emergency detention. No matter. As we discussed earlier, Sutterfield has not preserved a challenge to the legality of her seizure. Whether or not that act was potentially subject to a qualified immunity defense is therefore a question we need not address. The defense clearly does apply to the other acts to which Sutterfield has preserved a challenge—the warrantless entry into her home, the search of the locked compact disc case, and the seizure of the gun and licenses. For the reasons that follow, given the broad sweep that Wisconsin courts have given to the community caretaking doctrine, we agree with the district court that the police could have thought each of these actions was permissible in order to protect Sutterfield’s well-being. One point as to the relevance of Wisconsin cases must be disposed of at the start. Sutterfield contends that because Wisconsin precedent would not bind this court on the merits of her claims, and because in particular we, in contrast to the Wisconsin courts, have refused to extend the community caretaking doctrine to anything but automobile searches, the Wisconsin cases are irrelevant in terms of whether the defendants have qualified immunity. Not so. Although it is true that in this court, the Wisconsin cases have persuasive value only on the merits of Sutterfield’s federal claims, they remain relevant as to what the defendants might have thought the law, including the federal constitution, permitted them to do in No. 12-2272 61 executing the emergency statement of detention. Federal courts do not possess exclusive authority to decide Fourth Amendment issues; state courts resolve such issues every day. See Pompey v. Broward Cnty., 95 F.3d 1543, 1550 (11th Cir. 1996) (“The state courts are courts of equal dignity with all of the federal ‘inferior courts’—to use the Framers’ phrase—and state courts have the same duty to interpret and apply the United States Constitution as we do.”). In the absence of a controlling decision by the United States Supreme Court, the Wisconsin cases are thus as relevant as our own precedents in evaluating what a Milwaukee police officer might have thought the law permitted in responding to a report that the occupant of a private dwelling was in danger of harming herself. See Burgess v. Lowery, supra, 201 F.3d at 945-46; see also Stanton v. Sims, 134 S. Ct. 3, 5, 7 (2013) (per curiam) (considering decisions of both federal and state courts in concluding it was not clearly established that warrantless entry into home in hot pursuit of person believed to have committed misdemeanor offense was contrary to Fourth Amendment); Barnes v. Zaccari, 669 F.3d 1295, 1307 (11th Cir. 2012); Starlight Sugar, Inc. v. Soto, 253 F.3d 137, 144-45 (1st Cir. 2001); Edwards v. City of Goldsboro, 178 F.3d 231, 251 (4th Cir. 1999).12 12 It is worth noting that even if we were reviewing the Wisconsin decisions we are about to discuss—both of which are criminal cases—pursuant to petitions for a writ of habeas corpus, see 28 U.S.C. § 2254, the conflict between those decisions and our own decision in Pichany as to the appropriate scope of the community caretaker exception would not by itself support habeas relief. Pursuant to the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, the state decisions would have to be (continued...) 62 No. 12-2272 Although our decision in Pichany refused to extend the community caretaking exception recognized by the Supreme Court in Cady beyond the automobile context, Wisconsin courts have given the exception a much broader reach. They have relied on the community caretaking doctrine to justify warrantless entries into the home when the police have reason to believe that the occupant may be injured or otherwise in danger of harm. The appellate court’s decision in State v. Horngren, 617 N.W.2d 508 (Wis. Ct. App. 2000), applied the doctrine in the context of a reported suicide threat to hold that a warrantless entry into and search of a home under circumstances much like those presented here was lawful. The police in that case had received a call reporting that Horngren had threatened to kill himself. While en route to Horngren’s apartment, the responding officers were further advised he had a history of prior suicide threats (and had once been committed to a mental health facility for such a threat), and that he had (lawfully) possessed multiple firearms. When they arrived at the apartment, the officers knocked on his door and discovered it was unlocked. When one of the officers leaned on the door, causing it to open slightly, a naked Horngren rushed to the door and tried to push it shut without success. The officers forced the 12 (...continued) “contrary to, or involve[ ] an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States,” in order to support the issuance of a writ. § 2254(d)(1) (emphasis ours). See Marshall v. Rodgers, 133 S. Ct. 1446, 1450-51 (2013) (per curiam); Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362, 412-13, 120 S. Ct. 1495, 1523 (2000); Morales v. Boatwright, 580 F.3d 653, 662-63 (7th Cir. 2009). No. 12-2272 63 door open, placed Horngren in handcuffs, and then conducted a sweep of the apartment in order to determine whether there was someone else present, as Horngren told them there was. During that sweep, they came across marijuana that was in plain view. That discovery (along with drug paraphernalia found pursuant to a subsequent consensual search of the premises) led to criminal charges against Horngren. He sought to suppress the marijuana and drug paraphernalia on the ground that the warrantless entry into and sweep of his home, which resulted in the discovery of the marijuana, violated the Fourth Amendment. The Wisconsin appellate court, however, held that the entry and sweep were consistent with both the Fourth Amendment and the corresponding provision of Wisconsin’s constitution, as the police were not engaged in traditional law enforcement when they entered Horngren’s home but rather community caretaking. Id. at 511. The court applied a two-part test to determine whether the community caretaker exception to the warrant requirement applied, first confirming that the police were engaged in bona fide community caretaking activity, that is, activity “totally divorced from the detection, investigation, or acquisition of evidence relating to the violation of a criminal statute,” id. (internal quotation marks and citations omitted), and second, weighing the public good served by the actions of the police against the level of intrusion on the individual’s privacy, and determining in light of that balance whether the police action was reasonable on the facts and circumstances of the individual case, id. Citing section 51.15, the court observed that the police had a legitimate interest in Horngren’s well-being, given the reported suicide threat, that permitted them to enter the home 64 No. 12-2272 against Horngren’s consent. “Truly, the motivation in investigating the complaint was to render aid, not to investigate any criminal activity.” Id. at 511. Given the potential danger to Horngren’s well-being, the public interest also supported the degree of intrusion upon Horngren’s privacy. Id. at 512. Preventing an individual from taking his own life was of the “utmost public concern.” Id. The circumstances were also genuinely exigent: the police were acting in response to an emergency call and to the circumstances presented to them; and no less intrusive means of responding to the exigency were feasible under the circumstances. The sweep of the premises was likewise permissible: the court noted that a protective sweep is authorized to ensure the safety of the police and others present on the premises. Id. at 513. Horngren had indicated to the officers that a girl was present but she had not shown herself despite the officers’ struggle with him; it would have been unreasonable, in the court’s view, for the police not to check on her status. And because they discovered the marijuana in plain view during the check for the girl, the court concluded that the marijuana should not be suppressed. Id. at 513-14. In State v. Pinkard, 785 N.W.2d 592 (Wis. 2010), the Wisconsin Supreme Court—applying both the Fourth Amendment and its Wisconsin counterpart—likewise sustained the warrantless entry into, and sweep of, a dwelling, this time in response to a report suggesting that the occupants were unconscious, possibly as the result of drug abuse. There, a police officer had received a tip that two people were seen sleeping in a residence next to cocaine, money, and a digital No. 12-2272 65 scale; the back door to the residence was reportedly standing open. Police responded to the tip, saw that the back door (the main entrance to the residence) was indeed standing threequarters of the way ajar, knocked and announced themselves to no response, and entered the dwelling. Upon looking around, they saw an open bedroom door and two people sleeping inside of that bedroom. They announced themselves loudly a second time to the occupants, and after again receiving no response, entered the bedroom. There, in plain view, they observed both powder and crack cocaine, marijuana, and a digital scale. Ultimately, they had to physically shake one of the occupants—Pinkard, the defendant—awake, after which they arrested him for possession of the drugs.13 The court held that the warrantless entry into the defendant’s home constituted a legitimate exercise of the community caretaking function of the police. Consequently, the drugs and drug paraphernalia discovered in the home were admissible against Pinkard at trial. At the outset, the court expressly rejected Pinkard’s contention that the community caretaking exception first recognized by the United States Supreme Court in Cady was limited to searches of automobiles. The court instead declared that the community caretaking function may also justify the warrantless entry into a home, depending on the totality of the 13 They subsequently found a gun underneath the mattress. However, the trial court granted the defendant’s motion to suppress the gun, finding that searching beneath the mattress exceeded the bounds of the police officers’ community caretaking function. That ruling was not appealed by the State. 785 N.W.2d at 596. 66 No. 12-2272 circumstances confronting the police. Id. at 598-601. Whether the police were serving a bona fide community caretaking function when they entered Pinkard’s home presented a “close” question, in the sense that the information reported to the police not only raised a legitimate concern for the occupants’ safety but also implicated the occupants in criminal activity. Id. at 603. But the court declined to take a narrow view of the community caretaking exception and limit the exception only to cases in which the sole motivation for police action is the safety and well-being of a dwelling’s occupant; community caretaking and law enforcement objectives are not mutually exclusive, the court reasoned. Id. at 604-05.14 With that point settled, the court considered whether the community caretaker exception justified the warrantless entry into and sweep of Pinkard’s home. After ascertaining that a Fourth Amendment search or seizure had occurred, id. at 602, the court engaged in the same two-part inquiry that the appellate court had in Horngren: (1) were the police exercising 14 By contrast, some scholars have advocated for a rule conditioning application of the community caretaking doctrine on evidence that the police were animated primarily or solely by a community caretaking purpose, as opposed to a criminal law enforcement purpose, when they took warrantless action. See Dimino, 66 WASH. & LEE L. REV. at 1528-40; Decker, 89 J. CRIM. LAW & CRIMINOLOGY at 510-12; cf. People v. Mitchell, 347 N.E.2d 607, 609 (N.Y. 1976) (finding warrantless entry into defendant’s hotel room to be justified under emergency aid doctrine, in part because police had no motive to apprehend and arrest defendant or to seize evidence), abrogated by Brigham City, 547 U.S. at 404-05, 126 S. Ct. at 1948 (in emergency aid situation, “[t]he officer’s subjective motivation is irrelevant.”). No. 12-2272 67 a bona fide community caretaking function, and, if so, (2) whether the public interest outweighed the intrusion upon the privacy of the individual, such that the officers’ exercise of their community caretaking function was reasonable. See id. at 601. The court answered these questions in the affirmative. In this case, the police had a legitimate concern for the well-being of the unconscious, unresponsive occupants of the house. Id. at 603-04. Balancing the public interest served by police action against the intrusion on Pinkard’s privacy interests, id. at 605, the court concluded that the former outweighed the latter: it was possible that the occupants may have overdosed on drugs and thus required urgent medical assistance, and the fact that the door to the residence was left ajar suggested that the occupants were unable to look out for their own interests, id. at 606-08. In short, given the totality of the circumstances, the entry into the house and then the open bedroom constituted a reasonable exercise of the police officers’ community caretaking function. Id. at 608. And as the drugs were observed in plain view in the bedroom, they were admissible against the defendant at trial. Id.15 15 See also, e.g., State v. Ziedonis, 707 N.W.2d 565 (Wis. Ct. App. 2005) (sustaining warrantless entry into defendant’s home—wherein both unlawfully possessed firearms and marijuana were observed in plain view—on basis of community caretaker doctrine, where police, in attempt to solicit defendant’s help in corralling his dogs, which were running loose outside his residence and causing a disturbance in the middle of the night, saw that back door of defendant’s home was open by several inches, and defendant did not respond to repeated and prolonged efforts to announce (continued...) 68 No. 12-2272 Based on these decisions, the officers who forcibly entered Sutterfield’s home could have believed that their entry was justified by the community caretaking doctrine as understood and applied by the Wisconsin courts. They had a section 51.15 statement of emergency detention to execute based on the suicidal remark Sutterfield had made to her physician earlier that day. Sutterfield would not voluntarily admit the officers to her home; and her behavior, if not erratic, did nothing to allay the concerns raised by the physician’s report to the police. The entry was made in a bona fide effort to assure Sutterfield’s well-being; there has never been any suggestion that the police were acting for a law enforcement motive. In relevant respects, the circumstances of this case, as we have noted, were substantially similar to the circumstances that the appellate court in Horngren found sufficient to justify a forcible entry. Based on both that precedent and Pinkard, the police reasonably could have thought that the public interest in safeguarding Sutterfield’s life outweighed the intrusion into the privacy of her home. 15 (...continued) their presence and have him come to door); State v. Ferguson, 629 N.W.2d 788 (Wis. Ct. App. 2001) (sustaining warrantless entry into defendant’s bedroom and closet—wherein marijuana plants were discovered—as legitimate exercise of community caretaker function, where occupants of bedroom did not respond to officers’ repeated knocks and yells, there were multiple indicia elsewhere in the apartment that juveniles had been drinking substantial amounts of alcohol, and defendant had not been seen at work in several days; officers were justified in both entering bedroom and checking closet to make sure there was no one inside who needed assistance). No. 12-2272 69 The decision to forcibly open and search the locked compact disc case discovered in the course of the protective sweep presents a closer question in terms of the officers’ qualified immunity, just as it does on the merits of Sutterfield’s Fourth Amendment claim. No Wisconsin case that has been cited to us or that we have found has relied on the community caretaking doctrine to justify any search of the premises more intrusive than the sort of limited, protective sweep envisioned by Buie—that is, a search of places within the home that another person might be found. 494 U.S. at 335-36, 110 S. Ct. at 1099. The gun, having been secured within a locked, opaque case, obviously was not in plain view, in contrast to the drugs found in both Horngren and Pinkard. Opening the case was a substantial step beyond the standard protective sweep, and constituted a more substantial intrusion on Sutterfield’s privacy interests in her personal effects.16 Even so, a police officer might have thought the search of the case justified by the circumstances presented to him and the broader articulation of the community caretaking doctrine 16 Compare State v. Toliver, No. 2010AP484-CR, 2011 WL 228889 (Wis. Ct. App. Jan. 26, 2011) (nonprecedential decision) (community caretaker doctrine justified officer’s decision to open purse and look for identification, where officer was responding to report of possible suicide attempt and arrived to discover purse left unattended in common area outside of duplex), with State v. Kuczor, No. 2009AP1077-CR, 2009 WL 3103749 (Wis. Ct. App. Sep. 30, 2009) (nonprecedential decision) (community caretaker doctrine did not justify warrantless search of defendant’s duffel bag by deputy who responded to defendant’s one-car accident, notwithstanding both accident and defendant’s strange behavior, where there were no particular facts that warranted intrusion into bag and deputy was simply on a fishing expedition. 70 No. 12-2272 by the Wisconsin Supreme Court in Pinkard. The two-part inquiry set forth in Pinkard asks first whether the police acted for a community-caretaking purpose and second whether, on the totality of the circumstances, the public interest served by the police action outweigh the intrusion upon the individual’s privacy. Although we have not found any Wisconsin case that invoked the community caretaking doctrine to sustain a search akin to that here, neither have we found anything that would preclude this result when the search is conducted for purposes of protecting someone’s safety or well-being. We can imagine, for example, that in the case of a reported suicide attempt by drug overdose, a Wisconsin court might sustain the search of someone’s medicine cabinet, nightstand, or purse in an effort to locate drugs that the individual has taken or might take. See Stricker v. Tp. of Cambridge, supra, 710 F.3d at 362 (sustaining the warrantless search of home, including drawers and cabinets, where drug overdose of occupant had been reported and such search might yield clues as to what occupant had ingested). Indeed, the U.S. Supreme Court’s analysis in Brigham City theoretically might recognize such a situation as an emergency that justifies a warrantless search of this kind.17 17 See State v. Hooper, No. 2009AP575-CR, 2009 WL 4806889 (Wis. Ct. App. Dec. 10, 2009) (nonprecedential decision) (finding search of defendant’s dresser justified by community caretaker exception, where defendant had summoned emergency assistance with report that she had taken cocaine and was having difficulty breathing, emergency medical personnel arrivedto find her incoherent and unresponsive, medical personnel instructed police to look around defendant’s apartment for any harmful substance defendant might have ingested, officer saw a mirror on top of dresser with powdery residue on it, and officer looked in dresser drawer and discovered cocaine). No. 12-2272 71 Here, there is no question that the police searched the compact disc case not for law enforcement purposes but rather out of a safety concern. And the police might reasonably have concluded that although forcing open the case was a significant intrusion upon Sutterfield’s privacy, it was amply justified by the public interest in protecting both her safety and well-being as well as that of anyone else who either lived with her or had access to her home, including in particular a minor. Given the nature of Sutterfield’s threat to harm herself and her physician’s report that she likely possessed a gun, police had reason to look for any firearm that Sutterfield might use to harm herself. And although there was nothing but Floriani’s hunch that suggested there might be a gun inside of the case, the locked case was a logical place to look for a gun. For essentially the same reasons, we believe that a reasonable police officer might have thought, upon discovery of the gun, that he was authorized by his community caretaking function to seize the gun for safekeeping. Given the breadth that the Wisconsin courts have given to the community caretaking doctrine, and the fact-specific balancing of public versus private interests in which they engage when the police take action as they did here to safeguard an individual’s wellbeing, a police officer might think he would be authorized to seize an obvious implement of harm from an individual who has threatened to kill herself and is being taken into custody pursuant to section 51.15 for an emergency mental health evaluation. Regardless of Sutterfield’s legal right to possess the gun, there is an obvious and powerful logic and prudence supporting the decision to take the gun into police custody. See 72 No. 12-2272 Florida v. J. L., 529 U.S. 266, 272, 120 S. Ct. 1375, 1379 (2000) (“Firearms are dangerous, and extraordinary dangers sometimes justify unusual precautions.”).18 The police knew that Sutterfield had threatened to harm herself and was potentially in a volatile state of mind, that her psychiatrist believed she was in need of an intervention, and that, pursuant to section 51.15, Sutterfield was facing a short-term commitment for evaluation and potentially a longer term commitment if professionals confirmed she indeed posed a danger to herself. They had no idea whether she would be released within a day, a week, or a month. And they had no idea who, in the meantime—including her son—might have access to her home and to the unattended gun. Seizing the gun might not have been the only step they could have taken to prevent the gun from being misused or falling into the wrong hands, but it was a rational and defensible step. See Mora v. City of Gaithersburg, supra, 519 F.3d at 227-28 (sustaining seizure of individual’s guns and ammunition for public safety, after individual had been seized for involuntary mental health admission for making remarks indicating he might kill himself and possibly his co-workers); United States v. Harris, supra, 2014 WL 1356822, 18 See also State v. Kucik, No. 2009AP933-CR, 2010 WL 4633082, at  (Wis. Ct. App. Nov. 16, 2010) (nonprecedential decision) (Fine, J., concurring) (where defendant had been detained pursuant to section 51.15 after assaulting cousin and threatening life of both cousin and aunt—including threat to put a bullet in aunt’s head—and guns were seen in plain view in glass-fronted gun cabinet, it was reasonable for officers to take custody of defendant’s guns as safety measure in exercise of their community caretaking function, given that they did not know how long defendant would otherwise be separated from his guns). No. 12-2272 73 at  3 & n.4 (sustaining temporary seizure of gun falling out of sleeping man’s pocket). For all of these reasons, the defendants are entitled to qualified immunity for the warrantless entry into Sutterfield’s home, the search of the locked compact disc case, and the temporary seizure of the gun found inside of the case. The police were faced with a difficult situation in which they had reason to believe, based on her physician’s report, that Sutterfield might pose a danger to herself, they were implementing an emergency detention of her person for evaluation pursuant to section 51.15, and they were logically attempting to find the firearm they had reason to believe Sutterfield possessed and to secure that firearm while Sutterfield was undergoing a mental health evaluation. Notwithstanding the uncertainty as to which legal framework best applies to the warrantless actions of the police in these circumstances, the police could have believed that Wisconsin precedents, if not the federal cases, authorized them to take these actions in order to protect Sutterfield’s wellbeing as well as the well-being of anyone else, including her son, who might have access to her home in her absence.