Opinion ID: 1060593
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Reasonableness of Detention for Canine Sweep,

Text: We now turn to the question of whether the reasonable stop and detention of England's vehicle for a traffic violation was rendered unreasonable by the officer's use of the drug canine. In the trial court and the Court of Criminal Appeals, England argued that the canine sweep constitutes an unlawful search. He abandoned that position at oral argument before this Court and now concedes that a canine sweep is not a search. We agree. As the trial court observed: The case of U.S. v. Place, 462 U.S. 696, 103 S.Ct. 2637, 77 L.Ed.2d 110 (1983) stands for the proposition that there is no expectation of privacy in contraband and a dog sniff does not violate any privacy interest and is, therefore, not a search under the Fourth Amendment. United States v. Place, 462 U.S. 696, 103 S.Ct. 2637, 77 L.Ed.2d 110 (1983); United States v. Jacobsen, 466 U.S. 109, 104 S.Ct. 1652, 80 L.Ed.2d 85 (1984). Though the Place case involved the use of canines in airports to investigate luggage, the rule has been applied in the context of canine sweeps around the perimeter of a legally detained vehicle. Accord, e.g., United States v. Holloman, 113 F.3d 192, 194 (11th Cir.1997); United States v. Jeffus, 22 F.3d 554, 557 (4th Cir.1994); United States v. Seals, 987 F.2d 1102, 1106 (5th Cir.1993); United States v. Rodriguez-Morales, 929 F.2d 780, 788 (1st Cir.1991); United States v. Stone, 866 F.2d 359, 363 (10th Cir.1989). We conclude that the canine sweep did not constitute a search under the Fourth Amendment and therefore required neither probable cause nor reasonable suspicion. [4] Although he concedes that the canine sweep is not a search, England maintains that the scope of the officer's investigation exceeded the reason for the initial stop and was thus unreasonable. He relies on a federal case from the Sixth Circuit, United States v. Mesa, 62 F.3d 159 (6th Cir.1995) and a Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals case, State v. Morelock, 851 S.W.2d 838 (Tenn.Crim.App.1992). In our view, however, both these cases are clearly distinguishable. In Mesa , the officer stopped the defendant's vehicle, ordered her to the back of his patrol car, and informed her that she had been speeding. The officer checked Mesa's license and, shortly thereafter, issued a warning citation. Instead of allowing Mesa to exit the squad car, however, the officer began questioning her extensively regarding her destination. The officer then conducted a canine sweep around the perimeter of Mesa's vehicle, leaving her locked in the squad car. Although the canine failed to alert, officers nonetheless proceeded to search the inside of the vehicle, the underside of the vehicle, and the trunk, ultimately prying open a partition in the trunk, where they discovered evidence of illegal drugs. Id. at 161. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the trial court's denial of Mesa's motion to suppress the evidence obtained from the search, reasoning that: Once the purposes of the initial traffic stop were completed, there is no doubt that the officer could not further detain the vehicle or its occupants unless something that occurred during the traffic stop generated the necessary reasonable suspicion to justify a further detention. Id. at 162 (emphasis added). Accordingly, the court held in Mesa that any detention beyond that necessary to complete the traffic stop is unreasonable unless supported by reasonable suspicion. In contrast, in the present case, the investigation for drugs did not delay England beyond the reasonable time necessary to run a license check to carry out the purpose of the traffic stop. Morelock is also distinguishable. There, the officer legally stopped the defendant for a speeding violation, issued appropriate citations, and promptly learned that the defendant's driver's license was valid and that he had no outstanding warrants. The Court of Criminal Appeals observed that, [a]lthough their business had ended, the officer nonetheless proceeded to conduct a canine search. Id. at 839. The court characterized the case as a routine traffic stop prolonged and extended to the point that the detention, reasonable in the beginning, became unreasonable toward the end. Id. at 840. Thus, the search in Morelock became unreasonable because its duration exceeded that necessary to complete the investigation for the initial, legal traffic stop. In the case before us, however, both the canine sweep and the search of the inside of the vehicle occurred before the dispatcher reported back. Our de novo review of the record indicates that the entire duration of the stop did not exceed ten minutes. We thus conclude that the evidence does not preponderate against the trial court's finding that the length of the detention was reasonable and that the initial reasonable traffic stop was not rendered unreasonable by the investigative use of the canine.