Court Opinion

ID: 9742649
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 21:17:23.991378+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:34.477092
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE HARRISON, also dissenting: The majority’s disposition runs directly counter to the holding of Florida v. Wells (1990), 495 U.S. 1, 109 L. Ed. 2d 1, 110 S. Ct. 1632. There, as here, a general policy on inventory searches was in effect, or at least the Florida Supreme Court assumed that it was. (State v. Wells (Fla. 1989), 539 So. 2d 464, 469.) What made the inventory search constitutionally infirm in the view of both the State court (Wells, 539 So. 2d at 469) and the United States Supreme Court (Wells, 495 U.S. at 4-5, 109 L. Ed. 2d at 7, 110 S. Ct. at 1635) was that the policy did not specifically address the opening of closed containers. That is precisely the problem here. Closed containers are not mentioned anywhere in the general order promulgated by our State police for inventory searches. The majority attempts to distinguish this case from Wells on the grounds that the search here involved an unattended car towed after a wreck, whereas the search in Wells came after the defendant’s car was impounded following his arrest for drunk driving and the arresting officer directed employees of the impoundment facility to unlock a locked suitcase found in the trunk. I agree that these factual differences exist, but am at a loss to understand their legal significance. Nothing in Wells’ analysis turns on the circumstances giving rise to the inventory search. In determining whether police have the right to open closed containers found in the course of an inventory search, the threshold inquiry is whether a policy exists which specifically authorizes the procedure. Absent such a policy, opening closed containers during an inventory search violates the fourth amendment (Wells, 495 U.S. at 5, 109 L. Ed. 2d at 7, 110 S. Ct. at 1635), regardless of why the inventory search was originally undertaken. The majority is also incorrect in suggesting that the search here was valid because it involved “a reasonable exercise of judgment on the officer’s part.” In Wells, the court did hold that police are not required to have mechanistic “all or nothing” policies which call for all closed containers to be opened during an inventory search or else prohibit any containers from being opened. Rather, they are free to fashion policies which allow officers to exercise discretion in determining “whether a particular container should or should not be opened in light of the nature of the search and characteristics of the container itself.” (Wells, 495 U.S. at 4, 109 L. Ed. 2d at 6, 110 S. Ct. at 1635.) In this case, however, no such policy existed. As I just noted, there was no policy on closed containers at all. Without such a policy, whether the police officer’s judgment might otherwise be regarded as “reasonable” is wholly immaterial. For the foregoing reasons, I believe the judgments of the circuit and appellate courts should be affirmed. JUSTICE BILANDIC joins in this dissent.