Opinion ID: 2228003
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Police Officers' Boarding of the Bus

Text: Harris first asserts that he was illegally seized when the police officers boarded the bus and announced their intent to search for drugs. He urges us to adopt, for purposes of the Minnesota Constitution, a per se rule that passengers on a bus are seized as soon as officers board a bus and announce their intent to search for drugs. We decline to adopt the position advocated by Harris. In urging us to adopt the seizure rule that he advocates, Harris asks us to do so notwithstanding the United States Supreme Court's decision in Florida v. Bostick, 501 U.S. 429, 111 S.Ct. 2382, 115 L.Ed.2d 389 (1991). In Bostick, the Supreme Court held that a seizure does not necessarily occur under the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution merely because an encounter between a citizen and the police takes place on a bus. Id. at 439-40, 111 S.Ct. 2382. The facts of Bostick are as follows. Uniformed and visibly armed drug interdiction officers boarded a bus, asked to inspect Bostick's ticket and identification, inspected Bostick's ticket and identification, explained their presence as narcotics agents on the lookout for illegal drugs, and gained consent to search his luggage, in which they discovered cocaine. Id. at 431-32, 111 S.Ct. 2382. Although one officer held a recognizable zipper pouch which contained a gun, the officer never threatened Bostick with the gun. Id. at 431-32, 111 S.Ct. 2382. Moreover, Bostick was advised of his right to refuse to comply with the officers' requests. Id. at 432, 111 S.Ct. 2382. The Florida Supreme Court overturned Bostick's conviction, holding that the police practice of boarding buses during scheduled stopovers without reasonable articulable suspicion and questioning passengers per se violates the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Id. at 433, 111 S.Ct. 2382. The United States Supreme Court overruled the Florida Supreme Court, stating that an encounter between a citizen and the police does not become coerced on the part of the citizen and, therefore, amount to a seizure, based solely on the fact that the encounter takes place on a bus. Id. at 436-37, 111 S.Ct. 2382. In support of his argument that, under Minnesota's Constitution, he was seized when the police officers boarded the bus and announced their intent to search for drugs, Harris cites Ascher v. Commissioner of Public Safety, 519 N.W.2d 183 (Minn.1994). In Ascher, we held that random sobriety checkpoints are unconstitutional under the Minnesota Constitution. [2] Id. at 184. We stated that, without reasonable articulable suspicion that criminal activity is occurring, even minimally intrusive seizures of the traveling public are unacceptable. Id. at 187. The constitutional deficiency in Ascher involved impeding, without reasonable articulable suspicion, the progress of motorists who would not otherwise stop their vehicles so the police could randomly screen for intoxicated drivers. Id. at 184. These brief stops were coerced by the police, not voluntary on the part of the motorists, and, therefore, amounted to seizures. The present case presents a fundamentally different situation. Here, there is no indication in the record that the officers impeded the progress of the interstate bus or otherwise used coercion in boarding the bus and questioning passengers during the bus' regularly scheduled stopover in Saint Paul. Because the record fails to show that the officers impeded the progress of the bus or used coercion in boarding the bus and questioning the passengers, Ascher does not provide a basis to sustain Harris' argument that he was illegally seized. Under the circumstances of this case, we find no basis to construe Article I, Section 10 of our constitution, the text of which is identical to the text of the Fourth Amendment, as protecting individual rights to a greater extent than does the U.S. Constitution. Harris bases his argument that he was illegally seized solely on the fact that the officers boarded the bus and announced their intent to search for drugs. We agree with the United States Supreme Court that [w]here the encounter takes place is one factor, but it is not the only one. Bostick, 501 U.S. at 437, 111 S.Ct. 2382. Thus, the mode of transportation, which is normally voluntarily chosen by the passenger, is only one factor in the totality of the circumstances to be considered. While we recognize that circumstances may arise that could lead us to conclude that passengers on a bus are seized when officers board the bus, [w]e cannot agree    that this single factor will be dispositive in every case. Id. at 439, 111 S.Ct. 2382. The circumstances presented here, without more, do not mandate a conclusion that Harris was illegally seized when the officers boarded the bus and announced their intent to search for drugs. Accordingly, we hold that Harris was not seized at this point in the encounter.
Because we conclude that Harris was not seized when the police officers boarded the bus, it ordinarily would not be necessary to ascertain whether, prior to boarding the bus, the officers had reasonable articulable suspicion that Harris was transporting a controlled substance. We note, however, that the district court found and the court of appeals held that when the officers boarded the bus, they had reasonable articulable suspicion that Harris was transporting a controlled substance. Because we disagree with the conclusions of the lower courts and because analysis of this issue is important to issues raised later in this case, we shall address this issue now. In his report, Bratsch stated that the officers went to the bus depot to interdict passengers who matched the profile of a drug courier. Subsequently, at the Rasmussen hearing, Bratsch testified that no drug courier profile exists anymore and that a drug courier can be anyone. However, Bratsch testified that when conducting a bus-based drug interdiction, he looks for persons who: (1) exit the bus with only a small carry-on bag or with no luggage at all, (2) look around to see if any police or drug dogs are present, (3) enter the depot, (4) appear nervous, (5) perhaps make a phone call, and then (6) either reboard the bus or leave the depot by another means of transportation. Clearly, using Bratsch's criteria, a drug courier can be anyone. See State v. Williams, 525 N.W.2d 538, 546-47 (Minn.1994) (stating that an officer may keep a mental checklist of factors relevant to determining whether a person might be a drug courier, but that the propriety of the officer's conduct will be examined in the totality of the circumstances). Both Bratsch and Pyka stated that their suspicion of Harris was based on their conclusion that he was conducting counter surveillance activities in the depot. However, the activities noted by the officers could be consistent with the activities of any multitude of innocent persons. The officers did not provide any facts sufficient to distinguish Harris from innocent passengers in the depot. Cf. Johnson, 444 N.W.2d at 824 (holding that reasonable articulable suspicion was established when a motorist made evasive moves immediately after seeing a trooper's vehicle). The absence of any activity by Harris inconsistent with legal activity leads us to the conclusion that, when the police officers boarded the bus, they were acting on a mere hunch that Harris was transporting a controlled substance. A hunch, without additional objectively articulable facts, cannot provide the basis for an investigatory stop. See id. at 825. Accordingly, we conclude that when the officers boarded the bus, they did not have reasonable articulable suspicion that Harris was transporting a controlled substance.