Opinion ID: 2273474
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Place in Which it is Conducted

Text: Finally, we turn to the last Bell factor and consider the location in which the police conducted the search. Of all the factors considered thus far, we find this factor most troubling, yet ultimately conclude that it was reasonable under the circumstances. See Polk v. Montgomery Co., 782 F.2d 1196, 1201-02 (4th Cir.1986) (whether the strip search was conducted in private is especially relevant in determining whether a strip search is reasonable under the circumstances). We recognize that strip searches are necessary for a plethora of reasons, and we understand that in order to preserve the safety of officers, of the public and of evidence, they must sometimes be employed. But we also take this opportunity, as did the United States Supreme Court, to issue a caveat: these interests hardly justify disrobing an arrestee on the street. Illinois v. Lafayette, 462 U.S. 640, 645, 103 S.Ct. 2605, 77 L.Ed.2d 65 (1983). Indeed some courts have suppressed evidence where police officers, in an attempt to recover evidence, have exposed an arrestee's most private anatomy to the public. However, most of those cases involved searches conducted outside of four walls. See Amaechi v. West, 237 F.3d 356, 361-62 (4th Cir.2001) (holding a visual strip and visual cavity search unreasonable when done beside a police car); Hill v. Bogans, 735 F.2d 391, 394 (10th Cir.1984) (finding unconstitutional routine strip searches in a public area of persons detained for minor traffic offenses); United States v. Ford, 232 F.Supp.2d 625 (E.D.Va.2002) (holding search unreasonable when conducted on the highway in broad day light). We do not have that here. Here, while it is true that Appellee was strip searched in a room with a partially opened door it is also true that no one was in the line of sight during the search and that only the officers were in the room. And while the Court of Appeals was concerned with the possibility that someone might be able to peer into the room where the search was taking place, the evidence is to the contrary. [10] We refuse to suppress evidence based upon the unsupported assertion that the search was conducted in a manner potentially exposing Appellate to prospective onlookers. Where a search is conducted unnecessarily exposing an arrestee's naked body to the public, we will suppress absent the most extraordinary and bizarre circumstancesbut conjecture without evidence will not be considered. Ultimately, because Appellee was strip searched within four walls and because he was not exposed to anyone not involved with the search, we conclude that the place in which the search was conducted was reasonable. Therefore, after considering the Bell factors, we conclude that the need for the search outweighed the privacy considerations in this case.