Opinion ID: 396356
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Protective Sweep Incident to Arrest

Text: 12 While a motor home may afford its occupants a higher expectation of privacy than does an ordinary passenger automobile, it also raises the possibility of certain exigencies which are not present in the case of the ordinary automobile stop. A motor home may shield from the view of officers unknown occupants who could either present a threat to the officers' safety or destroy or secrete contraband while the driver is being interrogated. In that sense, a motor home is very much akin to a private dwelling. Therefore, search and seizure doctrines normally applicable to a stationary dwelling or business may in some instances also be applicable to a motor home. 13 The government invokes one such doctrine here. In United States v. Gardner, 627 F.2d 906 (9th Cir. 1980), we had occasion to comment extensively upon what is known in this circuit as the protective sweep doctrine. In Gardner, we stated the doctrine thusly: 14 When officers have arrested a person inside his residence, the exigent circumstances exception permits a protective search of part or all of the residence when the officers reasonably believe that there might be other persons on the premises who could pose some danger to them. (Footnote omitted.) 15 627 F.2d at 909, 910. 16 In Gardner, officers posing as drug purchasers had observed certain items of contraband and dangerous weapons in plain view within the residence of Gardner. Even though the residence had remained under surveillance from the outside, it was constructed in such a manner that a person could enter or exit undetected, and the agents were aware that at least one person had departed during their surveillance without being seen. When Gardner returned from a trip to purchase methamphetamine, he was arrested on the sidewalk outside of the residence, while a codefendant was arrested inside the residence. The arresting officers immediately engaged in a protective sweep of the residence to determine whether any other occupants remained. We there held that the agents could reasonably assume that other persons might have entered the premises undetected, and that weapons which had earlier been observed could be used. Applying the standards of Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968), we held that the officers in Gardner had reasonable cause to suspect that other potentially dangerous persons might be on the premises. 17 The reasonable cause element of Gardner is not susceptible of clear definition. Under the analogous Terry v. Ohio standard: 18 ... (T)he issue is whether a reasonably prudent man in the circumstances would be warranted in the belief that his safety or that of others was in danger ... And in determining whether the officer acted reasonably in such circumstances, due weight must be given, not to his inchoate and unparticularized suspicion or 'hunch,' but to the specific reasonable inferences which he is entitled to draw from the facts in light of his experience.... (citations omitted) 19 392 U.S. at 27, 88 S.Ct. at 1883, 20 L.Ed.2d at 909. Pre-Gardner decisions in our circuit which have upheld warrantless premises searches under the rationale of assuring officer safety have generally arisen in the context of circumstances wherein suspicion of the presence of others could rationally be based upon something more concrete than the mere physical capacity of a structure to harbor unseen occupants. See United States v. Blalock, 578 F.2d 245 (9th Cir. 1978) (search behind counter of auto shop during business hours); United States v. Hobson, 519 F.2d 765 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 931, 96 S.Ct. 283, 46 L.Ed.2d 261 (1975) (weapons known to be in residence where others were likely to be staying); cf. United States v. Mulligan, 488 F.2d 732 (9th Cir. 1973), cert. denied, 417 U.S. 930, 94 S.Ct. 2640, 41 L.Ed.2d 233 (1974) (brief inspection of closet toward which the arrestee had made two sudden moves). Somewhat analogous are decisions which have upheld the right of officers to check for individuals who might destroy evidence. See United States v. Spanier, 597 F.2d 139 (9th Cir. 1977); United States v. Fulton, 549 F.2d 1325 (9th Cir. 1977); United States v. McLaughlin, 525 F.2d 517 (9th Cir. 1975), cert. denied, 427 U.S. 904, 96 S.Ct. 3190, 49 L.Ed.2d 1198 (1976); United States v. Curran, 498 F.2d 30 (9th Cir. 1974). 20 In United States v. Basurto, 497 F.2d 781 (9th Cir. 1974), we held that a protective search was unreasonable where the only indication of potential harm to the arresting officers was that the arrestee, while being placed in custody in front of his house, turned toward the house and yelled, It's the police. While the vitality of Basurto has been drawn at least partially into question after Gardner, see 627 F.2d at 911, 912, n.6, it nonetheless is consistent with the premise that bare suspicion unsupported by articulable facts will not justify a protective search. 21 While nearly all of our fellow circuits have endorsed the principle of a protective search in one form or another, there is considerable disagreement over the degree of reasonable suspicion necessary to justify a sweep of the premises. Some decisions appear to require a fairly detailed showing of reasonable suspicion. E. g., United States v. Carter, 173 U.S.App.D.C. 54, 522 F.2d 666 (1975); United States v. Gamble, 473 F.2d 1274 (7th Cir. 1973). Others appear to be more sympathetic to the suspicions of the arresting officers. E. g., United States v. Bowdach, 561 F.2d 1160 (5th Cir. 1977). 22 Striking a proper balance in this area is particularly difficult, and overstatement is particularly inappropriate. The Supreme Court has not yet had occasion to address the protective sweep concept. An overly-restrictive view of the doctrine might expose arresting officers to unnecessary dangers without providing any greater protection to legitimate Fourth Amendment interests. An overly-deferential attitude toward officers' suspicions, on the other hand, could seriously infringe upon the right to be free from unreasonable searches. We necessarily proceed on a case-by-case basis, keeping in mind the oft-stated presumption that a warrantless search is inherently unreasonable. 23 Turning to the specific facts of this case, we acknowledge that our inquiry must focus upon the facts that would lead Agents T'Kindt and Barry to form a reasonable suspicion that the motor home housed additional occupants that could impose a threat to the officers' safety. To this end, the government cites several factors that militate in favor of the reasonableness of the search. 4 The agents had not been keeping the motor home under surveillance very long when they pulled it over. They therefore could not determine with any certainty whether other occupants aside from Wiga and Moody were present. After the stop, Wiga lied to the agents when he told them that no one else was present in the motor home. The agents not only knew that Wiga was lying, but their inability to observe Moody from the outside of the motor home confirmed that it was possible for someone to occupy the vehicle without being detected except by an inspection of the interior. Moreover, the vehicle was licensed to a handicapped person, and the agents knew that Wiga was not handicapped. It is not disputed that Agent T'Kindt confined himself to a quick and cursory inspection which could not be characterized as overbroad in light of its purposes. 24 The record reflects facts and circumstances which would support a reasonable belief that other persons may have been inside the motor home who may have been likely to endanger Agents Barry and T'Kindt. We must conclude, therefore, that the cursory inspection of the motor home was justified by the protective sweep doctrine. 5 Since Agent T'Kindt was performing a legitimate sweep of the motor home incident to the lawful arrest of Wiga, the weapons were lawfully seized since they were discovered in plain view. Harris v. United States, 390 U.S. 234, 88 S.Ct. 992, 19 L.Ed.2d 1067 (1968). 25 The district court denied Wiga's motion to suppress and found the warrantless search constitutionally valid as a search incident to Wiga's lawful arrest, citing United States v. Berryhill, 445 F.2d 1189 (9th Cir. 1971), with no mention of Gardner. In Berryhill, the defendant driver of a car and his wife, a front seat passenger, were patted down and his wife's handbag was searched incident to the lawful arrest of Berryhill for unlawful possession of the contents of stolen mail. Although the court in Berryhill did not apply Chimel v. California, 395 U.S. 752, 89 S.Ct. 2034, 23 L.Ed.2d 685 (1969), to the facts of Berryhill, because to have done so would have been an impermissible retroactive application of Chimel (see Williams v. United States, 401 U.S. 646, 91 S.Ct. 1148, 28 L.Ed.2d 388 (1971)), the court felt, in any event, that the Chimel rule of limiting the scope of searches incident to arrest in a defendant's home was of only slight relevance to the contemporaneous search of a vehicle incident to the arrest of its operator. This court in Berryhill concluded: 26 (W)hen the driver of a motor vehicle is lawfully arrested in the vehicle, the arresting officer has the right to search the vehicle contemporaneously with and as an incident to the lawful arrest, the vehicle being a thing 'under the accused's immediate control.' Preston v. United States, 376 U.S. 364, 367, 84 S.Ct. 881, (883,) 11 L.Ed.2d 777 (1963). 27 Id., 445 F.2d at 1192. 28 Whether the above sweeping statement in Berryhill has survived the years of developing Fourth Amendment jurisprudence may be questionable; 6 however, in light of the Supreme Court's recent determination that when a policeman has made a lawful custodial arrest of the occupant of an automobile, he may, as a contemporaneous incident of that arrest, search the passenger compartment of that automobile, New York v. Belton, --- U.S. ----, ----, 101 S.Ct. 2860, 2864, 69 L.Ed.2d 768, 775 (1981) (footnotes omitted), the statement from Berryhill is now correct to the extent that officers may search the passenger compartment of an automobile incident to the arrest of one of its occupants. 7 29 Thus, the district court's reliance upon Berryhill (at a time prior to the announcement of Belton ) is not misplaced in light of the Court's decision in Belton, nor is it contradictory to a finding that the search was a lawful protective sweep incident to an arrest. The justification for the limited sweep of the interior of the motor home in this case is directly related to the same fundamental justifications which dictate the results in both Berryhill and Belton, i. e., the preservation of evidence and the discovery of weapons that the arrestee may use to escape or harm the arresting officer. 30 In the present case, the officers could justifiably suspect that Wiga and Moody were not the sole occupants of the motor home. While the specific facts have already been discussed above, it deserves reiteration here that officers engaged in the lawful arrest of an operator of a vehicle have a legitimate interest in seeing that the other occupants of a vehicle do not impose any danger to them while executing the arrest of the operator. 8 This court in Berryhill said: 31 It is inconceivable that a peace officer effecting a lawful arrest of an occupant of a vehicle must expose himself to a shot in the back from defendant's associate because he cannot, on the spot, make the nice distinction between whether the other is a companion in crime or a social acquaintance. All companions of the arrestee within the immediate vicinity, capable of accomplishing a harmful assault on the officer, are constitutionally subjected to the cursory 'pat-down' reasonably necessary to give assurance that they are unarmed. 32 Id., 445 F.2d at 1193. Occupants of a lawfully detained motor vehicle may be routinely ordered out of the vehicle, Pennsylvania v. Mimms, 434 U.S. 106, 98 S.Ct. 330, 54 L.Ed.2d 331 (1977), and with reasonable suspicion that the occupants are carrying weapons, arresting officers may lawfully subject such occupants to a pat-down search. United States v. Berryhill, 445 F.2d 1189 (9th Cir. 1971); Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1967). It follows that arresting officers should be allowed to initially determine the number and identity of the occupants of a lawfully detained motor home where, as in this case, the enclosed nature of the vehicle prevents the arresting officers from determining how many occupants are traveling in the vehicle, and where the arrested operator, a fugitive felon, lied about the number of his traveling companions. The concern for the arresting officers' safety in this case dictates that the officers be allowed to make the initial determination of the number and identity of all the occupants. Such was the narrow purpose of Agent T'Kindt's sweep of the motor home when he discovered the shotgun and revolver in plain view. 33 The facts of this case support the district court's determination that Agent T'Kindt's sweep of the motor home was a reasonable search incident to Wiga's arrest. 9 Moreover, the record amply supports the district court's finding that the cursory inspection was the product of the agents' legitimate concern that other occupants may have been concealed within the motor home. We are not inclined to disturb that finding, United States v. Flickinger, 573 F.2d 1349, 1357 (9th Cir. 1978), and thus affirm the district court's denial of Wiga's motion to suppress the weapons.