Opinion ID: 415225
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: After Impoundment

Text: 18 Shaw also argues that a search of his pickup on the morning of December 26, after the vehicle had been impounded, was improper. In this search, the sheriff seized one live round of ammunition, as well as napkins, beer cans and tangerine peels, which he wished to compare with similar items found earlier at Ballard Creek. Shaw claims that the exigent circumstances to justify the warrantless search of an auto under Carroll no longer existed once police had impounded his vehicle. 19 While Carroll may initially have been interpreted to limit a finding of inherent exigency to situations in which a car is stopped on a public highway, later decisions by the Supreme Court have abandoned such a limitation. In Chambers v. Maroney, 399 U.S. 42, 90 S.Ct. 1975, 26 L.Ed.2d 419 (1970), the Supreme Court held that police officers may conduct a warrantless search of a vehicle, even after it has been impounded, if there is probable cause to believe there is contraband inside the vehicle that had earlier been lawfully stopped on the road. Accord, Texas v. White, 423 U.S. 67, 68, 96 S.Ct. 304, 305, 46 L.Ed.2d 209 (1975). In Michigan v. Thomas, --- U.S. ----, 102 S.Ct. 3079, 73 L.Ed.2d 750 (1982), the Supreme Court summarily reversed the suppression of evidence found in an automobile's air vents. The Court stated: 20 It is thus clear that the justification to conduct such a warrantless search does not vanish once the car has been immobilized; nor does it depend upon a reviewing court's assessment of the likelihood in each particular case that the car would have been driven away, or that its contents would have been tampered with, during the period required for the police to obtain a warrant. 21 Id. at 3081. 22 This Court disposed of the same argument in United States v. Mitchell, 538 F.2d 1230 (5th Cir.1976) (en banc) cert. denied, 430 U.S. 945, 97 S.Ct. 1578, 51 L.Ed.2d 792 (1977): 23 [T]he contention, that by the time of the search [the vehicle] had been immobilized, exigence had passed, and a warrant could have been obtained at leisure, is foreclosed by Chambers v. Maroney and Cardwell v. Lewis [417 U.S. 583, 94 S.Ct. 2464, 41 L.Ed.2d 325]. Both of these authorities recognize that exigence is to be determined as of the time of the seizure of an automobile, not as of the time of its search; the fact that in these cases sufficient time to obtain the warrant had passed between each seizure and the corresponding search did not invalidate either. 24 Id. at 1232 (citations omitted). See also United States v. McBee, 659 F.2d 1302, 1305 (5th Cir.1981), cert. denied, 456 U.S. 949, 102 S.Ct. 2020, 72 L.Ed.2d 474 (1982). 6 25 Clearly, the rationale of Chambers and its progeny is not that an automobile maintains its mobility when parked at the police station, but rather that, given the scope of the initial intrusion caused by seizure of an automobile, there is no constitutional difference between the proper search on the highway and the later search at the station. 7 In the words of the Supreme Court, for constitutional purposes, we see no difference between on the one hand seizing and holding a car before presenting a probable cause issue to a magistrate and on the other hand carrying out an immediate search without a warrant. Given probable cause to search, either course is reasonable. United States v. Ross, 456 U.S. 798, 807 n. 9, 102 S.Ct. 2157, 2163 n. 9, 72 L.Ed.2d 579 (1982), quoting Chambers, supra, 399 U.S. at 52, 90 S.Ct. at 1981. 26 We conclude that the critical evidence obtained by the two searches of Shaw's vehicle was properly acquired. Shaw's Fourth Amendment rights were not violated.