Opinion ID: 168860
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Reasonable in Scope

Text: Mr. Murphy alternatively argues that “his hour-plus detention” was unreasonable because it exceeded the permissible scope of an investigatory detention and evolved into a de facto arrest. Aplt’s Br. at 16. An investigative detention may become an arrest if it lasts for an unreasonably long time. United States v. Sharpe, 470 U.S. 675, 685 (1985). There are, however, no “hard-and-fast time limits” for an investigative detention, United States v. Montoya De Hernandez, 473 U.S. 531, 543 (1985), and, in determining a detention’s validity, we must “consider the law enforcement purposes to be served by the stop as well as the time reasonably needed to effectuate those purposes.” Sharpe, 470 U.S. at 685. Accordingly, “[i]n assessing whether a detention is too long in duration to be justified as an investigative stop, we . . . examine whether the police diligently pursued a means of investigation that was likely to confirm or dispel their suspicions quickly, during which time it was necessary to detain the defendant.” Id. at 686. Here, nothing in the record indicates that the officers were dilatory in carrying out their on-the-scene investigation. From questioning Mr. Murphy to attempting to contact Ms. Wheelright at the motel, the officers’ investigatory acts proceeded in a logical sequence. Furthermore, according to Officer Gibson’s uncontradicted account, the officers were “still trying to investigate” whether Mr. Murphy had permission to have the vehicle following Mr. Baxter’s arrest. Rec. vol. II, at 68. Nothing in the record indicates -11- that the officers were doing otherwise when the firearms were discovered. Mr. Murphy argues that the length of his detention was unreasonable by suggesting that the officers should have “traveled back up the road a half a block to investigate the automobiles” at Kwik City Muffler. Aplt’s Br. at 16-17. In hindsight, this might have been one way for the officers to approach the investigation; nevertheless, the officers’ decision not to go to Kwik City Muffler does not discredit the approach they actually employed. Sharpe, 470 U.S. at 686-87 (“A creative judge engaged in post hoc evaluation of police conduct can almost always imagine some alternative means by which the objectives of the police might have been accomplished. But the fact that the protection of the public might, in the abstract, have been accomplished by less intrusive means does not, itself, render the search unreasonable.”) (alterations and internal quotation marks omitted). Thus, Mr. Murphy’s detention was reasonable in scope. Accordingly, we hold that Mr. Murphy’s detention did not run afoul of the Fourth Amendment.