Court Opinion

ID: 9714931
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 05:49:37.155678+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:29.848302
License: Public Domain

CASTILLE, Justice,
dissenting.
The majority holds that although probable cause existed to search appellant’s car, the cocaine and money found in appellant’s car must be suppressed because appellant was in custody and police could have guarded the car until they were able to secure a warrant to search it. I believe that such a ruling ignores the circumstances of the search as well as the impact that such a ruling makes upon the limited resources of police. Accordingly, because I believe the majority’s holding all but eviscerates the automobile exception to search warrant requirements, I must dissent.
It is well established that a warrantless search of an automobile does not offend the Fourth Amendment where, inter alia, there is probable cause to search the vehicle and where exigent circumstances exist. Commonwealth v. Milyak, 508 Pa. 2, 7-8, 493 A.2d 1346, 1349 (1985) (citations omitted); Commonwealth v. Holzer, 480 Pa. 93, 389 A.2d 101 (1978) (the realities and practicalities of law enforcement dictate that where exigent circumstances exist, the warrant requirement is excused) (citation omitted); Commonwealth v. Lewis, 442 Pa. 98, 100, 275 A.2d 51, 52 (1971) (warrantless search is proper where probable cause exists to believe evidence of a crime is concealed in the vehicle). This “automobile exception” to the warrant requirement was recognized as a result of the re*446duced expectation of privacy a person has with respect to his or her automobile, the exigency created by the mobility of a car, and that due to the exigency it would be unlikely that the vehicle would be available by the time police were able to obtain a warrant. Commonwealth v. Smith, 452 Pa. 1, 5, 304 A.2d 456, 458 (1973), cert. denied, 414 U.S. 1076, 94 S.Ct. 593, 38 L.Ed.2d 483 (1973), citing Chambers v. Maroney, 399 U.S. 42, 51, 90 S.Ct. 1975, 1981, 26 L.Ed.2d 419 (1970). In finding that the automobile exception does not apply to the search at issue, the majority has essentially eviscerated the entire automobile exception since it now holds that if a police officer can be made available to guard the car while another officer obtains a warrant, then there is no exigency because it is no longer unlikely that the police guarded vehicle will be unavailable by the time a warrant was obtained. Ignoring the time it may take for police to: return to their headquarters, type up an affidavit, obtain approval of the affidavit from the local District Attorney’s office (if required), locate a neutral and detached magistrate to approve the warrant, have the warrant approved (assuming no changes are needed), and possibly round-up additional back-up, the majority has now imposed a duty upon police to idly watch over a car until a warrant is obtained, whenever that time might be. One of the purposes behind the automobile exception was to prevent this type of drain on law enforcement. See United States v. Chadwick, 433 U.S. 1, 97 S.Ct. 2476, 53 L.Ed.2d 538 (1977), accord Commonwealth v. Timko, 491 Pa. 32, 38, 417 A.2d 620, 623 (1980) (the basis for allowing warrantless searches of automobiles is based upon the inherent mobility of vehicles, the consequent practical problems of obtaining a warrant prior to infringing a legitimate expectation of privacy, and the diminished expectation of privacy which is accorded automobiles because of their open construction, their function, and their subjection to a myriad of state regulations).
Moreover, policy considerations also support the police officers’ immediate warrantless search of the vehicle as opposed to requiring some officers to remain at the scene, securing the vehicle, while other officers seek out a search warrant. Re*447quiring a number of police officers to remain with a suspect and a vehicle for an indefinite and uncertain amount of time will exhaust the limited resources of law enforcement and further ignores the realities attendant to the demands placed on law enforcement in modern society. Under such circumstances, the officers who secure the vehicle will not be available to respond to any other police emergencies. Many automobile investigations occur after regular hours and where, as here, the incident occurs in a rural area, procurement of a search warrant could take hours depending on the distance from the nearest magistrate and the location of the impoundment of the vehicle.
As stated by this Court in Commonwealth v. Milyak, 508 Pa. at 9-10, 493 A.2d at 1349, immobilization of a vehicle until a search warrant is obtained is merely an alternative to an immediate warrantless search of a vehicle, not a requirement as the majority holds. See Chambers v. Maroney, 399 U.S. 42, 52, 90 S.Ct. 1975, 1981, 26 L.Ed.2d 419 (1970) (there is no difference between seizing and holding a vehicle before presenting the probable cause issue to a magistrate and carrying out an immediate search without a warrant; thus, given probable cause to search, either course is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment); Commonwealth v. Baker, 518 Pa. 145, 149, 541 A.2d 1381, 1383 (1988), overruled in part by Commonwealth v. Rosario, 538 Pa. 400, 648 A.2d 1172 (1994). Thus, as a matter of federal and state case law, the police officers here were not required to secure or immobilize the vehicle until a search warrant was obtained.
Both Commonwealth v. Cockfield, 431 Pa. 639, 246 A.2d 381 (1968) and Commonwealth v. Linde, 448 Pa. 230, 293 A.2d 62 (1972), cert. dismissed, 409 U.S. 1031, 93 S.Ct. 523, 34 L.Ed.2d 482 (1972), upon which the majority rely, are readily distinguishable from the instant case. In Cockfield, police officers were patrolling a neighborhood on April 7, 1960, at approximately 2:30 a.m., when they discovered a house fire. When firemen gained entry into the home, the dead bodies of a woman and her two young children were found. Police and *448fire officials detected a strong odor of gasoline or kerosene on the premises.
At approximately 3:40 a.m., two detectives who were investigating the fire spoke with a neighbor of the victims. The neighbor informed them that the deceased woman had a relationship with a man who was later determined to be Cockfield. The woman said that the couple’s relationship had been strained and that Cockfield assaulted the woman with a knife approximately one month prior to the fire. The neighbor also informed the police that Cockfield drove a 1953 or 1954 Dodge or Plymouth car with a bluish top and dirty white or gray at the bottom. Shortly after 5 a.m., the detectives and two other officials went to the neighborhood where Cockfield was believed to live. A neighborhood resident directed the officials to Cockfield’s house. The officers rang Cockfield’s doorbell and knocked on the door but no one responded.
The officers then walked through the general area to see if there was an automobile which matched the description given to them. A car fitting the description was parked approximately three-fourths of a block away. The officers felt the hood of the car and it was quite warm indicating that the motor had recently been operating. One of officers took the license plate number to ascertain the identity of the registered owner. However, within minutes, the officer returned to the location of the vehicle with the deceased woman’s sister who told the police that the vehicle belonged to Cockfield. The police then opened the trunk of the car, which smelled of gasoline, and discovered a two gallon empty can marked “Gulf’ and a roll of charred toilet paper. The officers maintained surveillance of the automobile until approximately 8 a.m., however, Cockfield never appeared. Consequently, the police towed the automobile to a nearby police station where it was parked and disabled by removing the distributor and disconnecting certain electrical wiring. Later that day, Cock-field discovered his automobile parked in front of the police station. Cockfield went inside the station and inquired as to why his vehicle was at the station. A duty officer told Cockfield that he could take the car. Thus, Cockfield pur*449chased and installed the necessary parts and drove the car away.
On April 8, 1960, at approximately 1 a.m., police took Cockfield into custody and questioned him regarding the fire. On April 9, 1960, Cockfield signed an inculpatory statement. Thereafter, police took Cockfield’s automobile into custody a second time. After Cockfield was arraigned, police officers unlocked the trunk of the automobile and seized the gasoline can and charred toilet paper which the Commonwealth introduced as evidence at Cockfield’s trial.
This Court concluded that the evidence seized from Cock-field’s vehicle must be suppressed because the warrantless search of the vehicle was unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment. This Court reasoned that since Cockfield was in police custody at the time of the search, there was no legitimate reason to believe that the car would be or could be moved. Consequently, this Court held that there were no exigent circumstances which justified the warrantless search. Id. at 645, 246 A.2d at 384.
In Linde, police arrived at the defendant’s girlfriend home and discovered that both Linde and his girlfriend had been shot. The girlfriend died instantly as a result of five gunshot wounds, however Linde survived and was transferred to a hospital. The police located Linde’s automobile which was parked at a service station approximately 550 yards from his girlfriend’s home. One police officer went to the hospital and obtained Linde’s car keys from a hospital custodian. The officer returned to the service station where officers unlocked and searched the car. The officers found a notebook containing five pages of handwritten incriminating statements. Ten days later, the police went to the hospital and presented the incriminating notes to Linde. After acknowledging that he owned the notebook and that he wrote the notes, Linde initialed each page. The Commonwealth introduced the writings as evidence against Linde at trial.
This Court held that the writings seized from Linde’s vehicle must be suppressed because even assuming that the *450police had probable cause to search the vehicle, the exigent circumstances required for a warrantless search were clearly absent because the vehicle was under constant police guard from the moment it was located to the moment the police searched it; the vehicle was locked, unoccupied, and the police had possession of the keys; and because Linde himself was in the hospital undergoing emergency surgery and therefore, there was no danger he would move the car.
Clearly, Cockfield and Linde both involved searches of vehicles which had been in police custody and which police had immobilized for several hours prior to conducting a search. Consequently, in those cases, unlike the instant case, the police had ample opportunity to procure a search warrant. Here, police conducted the search at issue only after the police had reason to believe that appellant was in possession of additional cocaine and the prerecorded money. The car was located on a third party’s property and was within reach of appellant’s father who was present. Under these circumstances, I would find that exigent circumstances existed. Commonwealth v. Milyak, supra at 7-8, 493 A.2d at 1349; Commonwealth v. Rodriguez, 526 Pa. 268, 585 A.2d 988 (1991) (probable cause and exigent circumstances existed where reliable confidential informant supplied police with information regarding appellant’s illegal activities, where informant told police that appellant would be at a certain location, on a certain date and that appellant would be selling drugs; moreover, since police did not know appellant would be travelling in that specific vehicle on the date in question until they saw appellant driving, the warrantless search of defendant’s vehicle was valid); Commonwealth v. Baker, supra (warrantless search of vehicle proper where police received information from a reliable informant that defendant assaulted an individual in an alley with a gun and that the defendant exited the scene in a particular automobile and within minutes of the informant’s information, police located that automobile and placed defendant under a brief period of surveillance and stopped defendant only when he attempted to drive away).
Accordingly, I would affirm the order of the Superior Court.