Court Opinion

ID: 9557996
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 17:01:24.40929+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:08:04.783263
License: Public Domain

CLARK, J., Dissenting.
Unless its text, history or function supports a broader construction, a state constitutional provision affords no greater right than the parallel provision of the federal Constitution. The United States Supreme Court has interpreted the Fourth Amendment as permitting full body searches of all persons subjected to custodial arrest. (United States v. Robinson (1973) 414 U.S. 218 [38 L.Ed.2d 427, 94 S.Ct. 467]; Gustafson v. Florida (1973) 414 U.S. 260 [38 L.Ed.2d 456, 94 S.Ct. 488].) The texts of the search-and-seizure clauses of the California and federal Constitutions are virtually identical.1 Neither the history nor the function of the California provision supports this court’s recent conclusion that article I, section 13 imposes a “more exacting standard” than the Fourth Amendment. (See People v. Brisendine (1975) 13 Cal.3d 528, 553-558 [119 Cal.Rptr. 315, 531 P.2d 1099] (Burke, J., dissenting); People v. Norman (1975) 14 Cal.3d 929, 940-942 [123 Cal.Rptr. 109, 538 P.2d 237] (Clark, J., dissenting); People v. Longwill (1975) 14 Cal.3d 943, 952 [123 Cal.Rptr. 297, 538 P.2d 753] (Clark, J., dissenting).) Assuming arguendo that this case is indistinguishable from People v. Longwill, supra, I dissent for reasons expressed more fully in the aforementioned cases. (See also Gee v. Brown (1975) 14 Cal.3d 571, 576-577 [122 Cal.Rptr. 231, 536 P.2d 1017] (Clark, J., dissenting); United Farm Workers of America v. Superior Court (1975) 14 Cal.3d 902, 914-915 [122 Cal.Rptr. 877, 537 P.2d 1237] (Richardson, J., concurring); People v. Disbrow (1976) 16 Cal.3d 101, 117, 118-121 [127 Cal.Rptr. 360, 545 P.2d 272] (Richardson, J., dissenting); People v. Ramey (1976) 16 Cal.3d 263, 277-281 [127 Cal.Rptr. 629, 545 P.2d 1333] (Clark, J., dissenting).)
Further, I dissent on the ground this case is distinguishable from Longwill. In People v. Brisendine, supra, a majority of this court allowed that “both the justification and the scope of a weapons search incident to an arrest are dependent on the relative danger to the officer . ...” (13 Cal.3d at p. 536.) Transporting an arrestee by “B-wagon” rather than by patrol car is significantly more dangerous to both transporting officers and other arrestees. Therefore, while limiting the scope of a pretranspor*205tation search to a pat-down for patrol cars, this court should permit a full body search for B-wagons.
In assessing the precautionary measures reasonably required for the respective modes of transportation, the most significant difference between patrol car and B-wagon lies in the ratio between arrestees and officers. In a patrol car, one, two, sometimes three, arrestees are transported by one or two officers. In a B-wagon, while the number of officers remains the same, the arrestees may number 12. Moreover, in a patrol car security measures customarily include handcuffing and seating the arrestee next to an officer. In a B-wagon, arrestees and officers are in separate compartments; to prevent falls, accidents to which inebriates are particularly liable, handcuffs are not customarily used.
In light of these differences, the necessity of distinguishing between patrol car and B-wagon transportation should be evident. Nevertheless, the majority refuse to recognize the distinction, professing to find it “highly improbable” that a “covey of staggering and helpless inebriates” pose a “significant threat to the safety of the officers in charge of the B-wagon.” (Ante, p. 202.) The facts support the opposite conclusion. “The figures show that crimes of physical violence are associated with intoxicated persons. Cuttings (11 to 1 under the influence of alcohol), the carrying of concealed weapons (8 to 1 under the influence of alcohol) and other assaults (10 to 1 under the influence of alcohol) are definitely crimes of alcohol influence, even crimes of true intoxication.”2 Given this propensity to violence, failure to search an inebriate prior to transportation in a B-wagon obviously increases the peril to the officers as well as to the other arrestees. The majority prefer the privacy of one over the safety of several; I do not.
McComb, J., concurred.

Article I, section 13 of the California Constitution provides in pertinent part: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable seizures and searches may not be violated . .. .” The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides in pertinent part: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated ....”

Shupe, Alcohol and Crime: A Study of the Urine Alcohol Concentration Found in 882 Persons Arrested During or Immediately After the Commission of a Felony (1954) 44 J. Crim. L.C. & P.S. 661, 663, quoted in President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, Report (1967) Drunkenness, pages 13-14.