Opinion ID: 2581719
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Garcia's Detention

Text: The record demonstrates that the officers were responding to a domestic disturbance report at night. They were told that men and women were yelling and screaming at a residence. At the outset of their investigation, the officers did not know how many people were involved or if they were armed. In the course of interviewing persons at the scene, they saw drug paraphernalia, a pipe at Garcia's feet, indicating possible drug possession and use. Based thereon, they had reasonable suspicion to pursue an investigation into the commission of criminal acts. They had a reasonable concern for their own safety, and detained, in separate cars while pursuing their investigation, two men who were apparently involved. When the officers placed Garcia in the police car, the officers had contacted only these two men and had not yet contacted the women mentioned by Garcia. The officers' subsequent contact with one of the women provided evidence of illegal drug possession and use. This led to the police requesting Garcia's consent to search his residence. The interchange between the officer and Garcia within the police car was straightforward and relatively brief. The court found that no flagrant police conduct occurred. The trial court found that Garcia was detained in the police car and, therefore, was in custody during the ensuing fifteen minutes of the investigation prior to the police asking for consent to search his residence. The trial court stated in its written order that one of the officers acknowledged that the contact with the defendant at that point was `custodial' and the officer's purpose was to secure the defendant while completing his investigation. However, the test we apply is objective in nature, not dependent on the subjective impressions of the officers involved. Objective standards of reasonableness guide our inquiry as to the propriety of an officer's decision to conduct an investigatory stop. Ramos, 13 P.3d at 297. Central to our inquiry is whether there was a reasonable nexus between the police intrusion and the investigation. In regard to the first two prongs of the investigatory stop criteria, we conclude from the record that the officers had a reasonable suspicion that Garcia had committed a crime and that the purpose of his detention in the police car was reasonable. We now apply the Rodriguez factors in determining whether this investigatory stop was reasonably related in scope and character to its purpose. First, the court should consider the length of the intrusion. See Rodriguez, 945 P.2d at 1362 (holding that an investigatory stop lasting ninety minutes and involving relocation many miles from the stop to the police station became an arrest); see also United States v. Sharpe, 470 U.S. 675, 685-86, 105 S.Ct. 1568, 1575-76, 84 L.Ed.2d 605, 615-16 (1985)(rejecting a bright-line rule defining a specific length of time at which a stop becomes an arrest, but conceding officers must be able to detain a suspect long enough to complete the investigation). The length of a valid investigatory stop is properly measured as the time required for the officers to diligently complete the investigation given the complexity of the situation and their legitimate personal safety considerations. In Smith, 13 P.3d at 305, we held that during an investigatory stop, an officer may take steps to ensure his own safety but that a show of force does heighten our concern as to whether the action taken exceeds what is reasonably necessary. Here, as events unfolded, there were four persons the police were investigating in regard to a domestic disturbance involving drugs. We conclude that fifteen minutes of investigation while Garcia was detained in the police car did not transform his detention into an arrest. Second, the court should consider whether the officers diligently pursued the investigation during the detention. Rodriguez, 945 P.2d at 1362; See also Sharpe, 470 U.S. at 686, 105 S.Ct. at 1575 (stating that whether the police diligently pursued the investigation is important when evaluating whether the length of detention is too long). The record demonstrates that when the officers placed Garcia in the back of the police car, they proceeded with the investigation promptly, sought Garcia's consent to search his residence quickly upon interviewing the two women who emerged from the residence, and soon completed the search upon receiving Garcia's consent to search. We conclude that the officers diligently pursued the investigation. Third, the court should consider whether the suspect was required to move from one location to another. See Rodriguez, 945 P.2d at 1362. We find the logic of Rodriguez and of a Ninth Circuit decision to be instructive. In Rodriguez, we determined that the forced return of the defendant from the point of contact to the police station many miles away did not constitute a brief and minimal intrusion and was unreasonable under the circumstances. See Rodriguez, 945 P.2d at 1363. In United States v. Baron, 860 F.2d 911, 915 (9th Cir.1988), the court held that moving a suspect from the street into the back of a police car did not make a Terry stop a de facto arrest. The court held that the police may move a suspect without exceeding the bounds of the Terry -stop when it is necessary for safety or security reasons, when it is the least intrusive method available [5] to achieve the legitimate goals of the stop, and when moving the suspect does not make the circumstances of the detention so coercive that the detention becomes indistinguishable from an arrest. Id. In contrast to the facts in Rodriguez, the officers' movement of Garcia was reasonably related to the safety of the officers while they pursued an investigation in the immediate vicinity of the place where he was being detained. With a domestic disturbance at hand and evidence indicating drug use, the officers chose an appropriate way to maintain control at the scene, protect their persons, and interview all the suspects and witnesses. Garcia was in public view during the entire fifteen minutes he was detained in the back of the police car. Keeping a person publicly visible during an investigation allows other persons to observe whether police conduct is coercive. We conclude that the movement of Garcia from the front of his residence to the police car was reasonable. Fourth, the court should consider whether the police acted unreasonably in failing to recognize or pursue a less intrusive means of detention. See Rodriguez, 945 P.2d at 1362 (citing Sharpe, 470 U.S. at 687, 105 S.Ct. at 1576). Our precedent does not require the police to choose the least intrusive means of detention. Rather, we must determine whether the police acted unreasonably in a given case. Rodriguez, 945 P.2d at 1363. We conclude that the officers acted reasonably when they detained Garcia within the police car. They had few options available. When the officers arrived at the scene, they immediately confronted an obviously intoxicated person who was apparently involved in an altercation with someone in the residence. When Garcia emerged from his residence and the officers observed evidence of drug use, the pipe at Garcia's feet, they had reasonable suspicion that a crime was being committed; but, they did not know how many more persons might be involved. They could have allowed Garcia to re-enter the residence, but that might have compromised officer safety and contributed to the disturbance they were investigating. We conclude that the officers' detention of Garcia in the police car was not unreasonably intrusive under the circumstances. In sum, we determine that the officers' placement of Garcia in the police car did not elevate the investigatory stop into an illegal arrest. The officers had a reasonable suspicion to believe that a crime was being committed, had a reasonable concern for their safety, took reasonable steps to detain Garcia while they pursued their investigation, and reasonably proceeded to complete the investigation. See D.F., 933 P.2d at 12. The scope and character of police intrusion upon Garcia's privacy was reasonable in light of its purpose. Police conduct under the circumstances of this case did not offend the reasonableness requirements of the Fourth Amendment. Consequently, the trial court erred in suppressing the evidence as the fruit of an illegal arrest. We now proceed to its alternative conclusion that failure to give a Miranda advisory vitiated Garcia's consent to search his residence.