Opinion ID: 2604190
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: administrative search doctrine

Text: The majority concede that if the primary purpose of the roadblock were to detect crime, the detention of a driver without individualized suspicion that the driver had engaged in criminal activity would be unconstitutional. In fact, the roadblock has two purposes: detection of drunk drivers and collection of evidence. The majority maintain, however, that the primary purpose of these roadblocks is to promote public safety by deterring drunk driving. The majority assert that this is a regulatory or administrative purpose, and conclude that detention without individualized suspicion is permissible by analogy to the administrative search doctrine we adopted in People v. Hyde (1974) 12 Cal.3d 158 [115 Cal. Rptr. 358, 524 P.2d 830]. In Hyde, we permitted predeparture screening of airline passengers, without individualized suspicion of wrongdoing. Our theory was that the screening was a central part of a general regulatory scheme in furtherance of an administrative purpose, not an effort to seize contraband or evidence of crime. ( People v. Hyde, supra, 12 Cal.3d at p. 166.) Hyde does not bring the drunk driving roadblock into the administrative search doctrine. First of all, the Vehicle Code provisions prohibiting drunk driving are not a regulatory scheme. In Hyde, we used federal cases approving warrantless inspection of the firearms and liquor industry as examples of pervasively regulated activities in which a warrantless inspection was permissible. ( People v. Hyde, supra, 12 Cal.3d 158, 165, citing United States v. Biswell (1972) 406 U.S. 311 [32 L.Ed.2d 87, 92 S.Ct. 1593]; Colonnade Corp. v. United States (1970) 397 U.S. 72 [25 L.Ed.2d 60, 90 S.Ct. 774].) The rationale of those cases is that a person engaging in the pervasively regulated industry is on notice that he has a limited expectation of privacy because the regulations provide for effective inspection. ( United States v. Biswell, supra, 406 U.S. 311, 316 [32 L.Ed.2d 87, 92], see also Marshall v. Barlow's, Inc. (1978) 436 U.S. 307, 313 [56 L.Ed.2d 305, 311-312, 98 S.Ct. 1816].) No such regulatory scheme puts California drivers on notice that they are subject to detention without reasonable suspicion to determine whether they are driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Drivers do not impliedly consent to being inspected for alcohol on their breath. The United States Supreme Court has rejected the Colonnade/Biswell analogy for automobile inspections on the ground that motorists have a considerable and legitimate expectation of privacy in the automobile, including an expectation of freedom of movement. ( Delaware v. Prouse (1979) 440 U.S. 648, 662-663 [59 L.Ed.2d 660, 673, 99 S.Ct. 1391].) The Supreme Court also has rejected the argument that driving is a pervasively regulated activity subjecting motorists to suspicionless roving immigration stops. ( Almeida-Sanchez v. United States (1973) 413 U.S. 266 [37 L.Ed.2d 596, 93 S.Ct. 2535].) The court has explained that a roving stop of a motorist to check for illegal aliens was unreasonable; the driver was not in the same position as the gun manufacturer or liquor distributor who had in effect consented to inspection by entering a heavily regulated industry. ( Id. at pp. 271-272 [37 L.Ed.2d at p. 602].) A drunk driving roadblock also differs from the usual administrative or regulatory inspection because there is no regulatory agency to enforce the drunk driving prohibitions other than the police and the criminal courts. [2] The clear purpose of these laws is not to regulate, but to detect and punish criminal drunk driving. Nothing distinguishes this crime from any other serious one. The majority suggest that as long as the purpose of a drunk driving roadblock is to deter rather than detect crime, the roadblock is regulatory. But we certainly did not hold in Hyde, supra, 12 Cal.3d 158, as the majority suggest, that if the purpose of a detention is to deter rather than detect crime, it may be justified as an administrative search. Criminal law enforcement encompasses both detection and deterrence. If we allowed detentions without individualized suspicion to deter crime, we would allow preventive detentions in high crime areas. But we do not allow such practices. (See People v. Loewen (1983) 35 Cal.3d 117, 124 [196 Cal. Rptr. 846, 672 P.2d 436].) What distinguishes the permissible administrative inspection from other searches is not that they are only intended to deter, but that they carry out an administrative scheme that is not part of the penal system. There is no such administrative scheme here. In fact, the majority would permit roadblocks carried out without uniform regulation, without statewide oversight, in a Balkanized system varying from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. The majority also rely on dictum in Delaware v. Prouse, supra, 440 U.S. 648, another case involving random stops of automobiles. There the high court disapproved a roving patrol stop conducted without individualized suspicion to check for current license and vehicle registration. The court said that its holding did not mean that police could not try other methods to enforce license and registration laws, such as a permanent roadblock to inspect for license and registration violations. But the Prouse dictum is inapposite. A roadblock inspection for license and vehicle registration is an administrative inspection, since these aspects of motoring are closely regulated. Since license and registration violations do not involve criminal sanctions primarily, the inspections themselves are less intrusive for the average motorist. A request to look at one's license is far less accusatory than an inspection for red, watery eyes, slurred speech, alcohol on the breath, open containers in the car, and the other signs of intoxication. It does not follow that, because a roadblock may be permissible to check for drivers' licenses, it must be permissible to check for drunk driving. To call a drunk driving roadblock an administrative inspection ignores its true purpose  apprehension of drunk drivers. The fact is that the apparatus of the law enforcement system is moved to the scene of the roadblock  with breathalyzers ready to take evidence for introduction at a criminal trial, police officers ready to arrest offenders, and police vans ready to take suspects away. If we call the Burlingame roadblock an administrative inspection, then a detention to investigate any crime could be deemed an administrative inspection. The Constitution cannot, and should not, be stretched so far.