Court Opinion

ID: 9552142
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 19:05:29.365444+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:25:41.268797
License: Public Domain

HOLOHAN, Justice,
dissenting.
A person on probation suffers a restriction of his liberty. A probationer, however, does not lose all of his constitutional rights. The United States Supreme Court in Morrissey v. Brewer, 408 U.S. 471, 92 S.Ct. 2593, 33 L.Ed.2d 484 (1972) and Gagnon v. Scarpelli, 411 U.S. 778, 93 S.Ct. 1756, 36 L.Ed.2d 656 (1973) has made it clear that parolees and probationers have certain constitutional rights despite their conditional liberty status.
I believe that the majority has gone too far in restricting the rights of probationers. The so-called “Condition No. 11” is over-broad. In my judgment that portion of the condition which provides for search of the *586probationer by any police officer at any time without a search warrant is patently unconstitutional. People v. Anderson, 536 P.2d 302 (Colo. 1975).
In my view the majority is correct in holding that the condition is constitutionally valid in allowing a search at any time by a probation officer without a search warrant. I agree with the authorities cited by the majority although there is respectable authority to the contrary. Tamez v. State, 534 S.W.2d 686 (Tex.Cr.App. 1976); People v. Peterson, 62 Mich.App. 258, 233 N.W.2d 250 (1975). The distinction between the probation officer and the police officer is important in a constitutional sense. The probationer has a conditional liberty dependent upon the observance of special conditions. The statute, A.R.S. § 13-1657(A)(1), requires that a person placed on probation be under the charge and supervision of the probation officer of the court. This requirement is in harmony with the traditional notion of the role and duties of a probation officer in a system of rehabilitation by conditional liberty with supervision.
The role of the police officer is primarily law enforcement. He is not charged with the duty of rehabilitation of felons. His role is to apprehend felons. I find no rationale which can justify the invasion of a probationer’s limited rights by warrantless searches by police officers. The condition in question allows such warrantless searches at any time, and, by the omission of any requirement for reasonableness, upon any whim. Such a provision cannot comply with even relaxed standards of due process.