Court Opinion

ID: 9598858
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 01:12:42.917468+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:01:42.991863
License: Public Domain

■ CAMERON, Judge
(dissenting).
■ I regret that I must dissent. The facts are clear as set.forth in the opinion, that when the two officers went to the front door there was nothing whatsoever to indicate to the woman who responded to their presence that they were in fact police officers or that they possessed a search warrant. No identification was shown to this woman, the officers were not in uniform, and they stated that they were there for the purpose of checking and repairing some electrical wiring. Under these circumstances, the woman had every right to refuse them admittance. Under these facts, the woman had no reason to believe the two alleged workmen, if and when they later stated they were officers and had a search warrant. It was evidently the opinion of the court below and the opinion of the majority of this Court, that the actions of the police officers in attempting to obtain admission through a ruse, had no effect whatsoever upon the subsequent announcement by the officers, that they were in fact police officers, and that, therefore, the forceful entering of the premises under the warrant was reasonable and lawful. With this I cannot agree.
The action of the police officers in this case renders the search and seizure unreasonable and therefore unlawful, despite the fact that they held a valid warrant. Our statute states in part:
“The officer may break open an outer or inner door or window of a house, or any part of a house, or anything therein, to execute the warrant, if, after notice of his authority and purpose he is refused admittance. * * * ” § 13-1446 A.R.S. (Emphasis added.)
There are cases which have held that a police officer armed with a warrant may break into a private dwelling place without first announcing his purpose, and giving the occupants the chance to admit them, when the circumstances surrounding the search and seizure are such as to make said announcement unreasonable as a matter of law. People v. Ker, 195 Cal.App.2d 246, 15 Cal.Rptr. 767 (1961), affirmed 374 U.S. 23, 83 S.Ct. 1623, 10 L.Ed.2d 726; People v. Maddox, 46 Cal.2d 301, 294 P.2d 6 (1956), cert. denied 352 U.S. 858, 77 S.Ct. 81, 1 L.Ed.2d 65. These cases are mostly concerned, as here, with searches for and seizures of narcotics. In the instant case, had the two officers appeared in uniform and after the door was opened announced their purpose and made an immediate even forceful entry, I would not feel compelled to disagree with the majority opinion.
Generally, laws authorizing invasion of private premises and sanctity of the home by search and seizure proceedings are to be strictly construed. Murphy v. State, 95 Okl.Cr. 333, 245 P.2d 741 (1952); Edwards v. State, 95 Okl.Cr. 37, 239 P.2d 434 (1951). The constitutional guarantee against unreasonable searches and seizures marks the right of privacy as one of the unique values of our civilization. The law prohibiting *282unreasonable searches and seizures was designed to protect both the innocent and the guilty from unreasonable intrusions upon their right of privacy while leaving adequate room for necessary process of law enforcement. Trupiano v. United States, 334 U.S. 699, 68 S.Ct. 1229, 92 L.Ed. 1663 (1948). And what is a “reasonable search” is not to be determined by any fixed formula but is to be resolved according to the facts of each case. United States v. Rabinowitz, 339 U.S. 56, 70 S.Ct. 430, 94 L.Ed. 653 (1950), State v. Baca, 1 Ariz.App. 16, 398 P.2d 924 (1965). To encourage the action of the officers in this case can only lead to breaches of the peace and personal violence. As the majority opinion points out, the woman in the instant case would have had every right to repel this invasion by two alleged workmen with such means as were at hand. Their shouts that they were police officers and that they possessed a search warrant were ineffective as notice of their authority under our statute (13-1446 A.R. S.) because they had by their prior actions led the woman to believe that they were in fact not police officers. By this action the officers destroyed the cloak of legality that the warrant gave them in breaking and entering the premises. In a recent federal case concerning a city detective who, having first obtained a search warrant, knocked on the door of an apartment, received no answer, but heard some scuffling noise on the inside, and knocked the door open with a sledge hammer, the court said :
“[t]he district court * * * properly concluded that the search warrant per se did not insulate the law enforcement representatives from the necessity of reasonably conducting their search. * * * ” United States ex rel. Manduchi v. Tracy, 3 Cir., 350 F.2d 658, 660 (1965), cert. denied 382 U.S. 943, 86 S.Ct. 390, 15 L.Ed. 2d 353 (1965).
In my opinion, limited to the particular facts in the instant case, the search was unreasonable and the evidence obtained therefore inadmissible.