Opinion ID: 62905
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Fort Bend Employees

Text: The Gates children also fault the Fort Bend deputies for their roles in the seizure that evening and argue that the deputies may not blindly rely on TDPRS's conclusions to justify their actions. Because we have determined that TDPRS did not violate the Fourth Amendment by seizing the Gates children, we also conclude that the Fort Bend deputies acted constitutionally. We note that the Supreme Court has held that police officers may act on the basis of information known by their colleagues in conducting searches and seizures. See United States v. Hensley, 469 U.S. 221, 230-31, 105 S.Ct. 675, 83 L.Ed.2d 604 (1985); see also Whiteley v. Warden, 401 U.S. 560, 568, 91 S.Ct. 1031, 28 L.Ed.2d 306 (1971) (Certainly police officers called upon to aid other officers in executing arrest warrants are entitled to assume that the officers requesting aid offered the magistrate the information requisite to support an independent judicial assessment of probable cause.). As stated by the Ninth Circuit, [E]ffective law enforcement cannot be conducted unless police officers can act on directions and information transmitted by one officer to another and that officers, who must often act swiftly, cannot be expected to cross-examine their fellow officers about the foundation for the transmitted information. United States v. Robinson, 536 F.2d 1298, 1299 (9th Cir.1976). Because TDPRS concluded that it was necessary to remove the Gates children, the Fort Bend deputies were entitled to reasonably rely on TDPRS's assessment of the situation. The Fort Bend deputies' reliance was reasonable in this case because the deputies were aware that the TDPRS employees had questioned the children for several hours, which would indicate that TDPRS was making an informed decision. Further, the Gateses did not present any evidence that TDPRS had routinely made unconstitutional decisions to remove children in the past, which might have given the Fort Bend deputies pause before agreeing to assist the TDPRS employees. Consequently, the Fort Bend deputies did not violate the Gates children's Fourth Amendment rights in assisting TDPRS in removing the children from their home. [19]