Court Opinion

ID: 9490704
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 13:52:19.174283+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:54:16.365066
License: Public Domain

MURPHY, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
Since I believe that the police were justified in the investigation they undertook and that their conduct did not violate the fourth amendment, I respectfully dissent.
On December 25, 1995, the Sioux City police received a report of a burglary at the Uhlir residence. Among the stolen items were a coin collection worth approximately $100,000, a Chrysler LeBaron convertible, and three handguns. The officers investigating the burglary received a tip from an anonymous source on the morning of January 2. The tip indicated that Larry Conner and John Tilton had been seen with the stolen coins in a red 1986 Pontiac Fiero with Iowa license plate WEH624. The source further stated that the two suspects were staying in a Sioux City motel but were planning to leave town that same day to dispose of the stolen property.
Police were dispatched to locate the Pontiac Fiero with a warning that the suspects might be armed because weapons and ammunition were taken in the burglary. Two officers found the ear at the Elmdale Motel. Access to the motel rooms was directly from the parking lot, and the police observed a number of cars parked in front of rooms, including the red Fiero parked outside of room 31.
When Sergeant Young, the officer in charge of the investigation, arrived on the scene, he and officer Hein, who was in uniform, approached the door of room 31 in the hope of talking with the occupants. Young was already familiar with Larry Conner and knew he had prior offenses involving drugs and burglaries. Detectives Iddings and Polak positioned themselves next to the room’s picture window at one side of the door. After knocking and identifying themselves at least twice, the officers observed someone inside the room peer out the window, but no one came to the door. Detective Iddings also saw on the inside windowsill some coins packaged in clear protective covers which he recognized from a briefing describing the Uhlir burglary. He pointed at the coins in the hope of attracting Sergeant Young’s notice, but Young was repositioning himself next to the door ■ outside the line of fire. Hein knocked again more loudly and Young called out, “Open up.”
At this point John Tilton opened the door, and he opened it wide enough so that Young could see the items taken in the burglary in plain view. Tilton and Conner were placed under arrest and given Miranda warnings. Young directed two of the officers to secure the room, but not to search further or touch anything. He and another officer left to get search warrants for the room and for Conner’s residence, and evidence was later gathered pursuant to those warrants.
We review the district court’s ultimate conclusion on probable cause and exigent circumstances de novo. See United States v. Ball, 90 F.3d 260, 262 (8th Cir.1996) (citing Ornelas v. United States, — U.S. -, -, 116 S.Ct. 1657, 1663, 134 L.Ed.2d 911 (1996)). Before the officers approached the motel room door, they had already located the vehicle with the exact make, model, color, and license plate described in the tip, and the car was parked at a local motel as the tip had indicated it would be. Even though they had knocked and identified themselves as police, no one had answered the door, and Iddings had observed coins through the window *669which appeared to be those taken from the Uhlir home.4 At this point the officers had probable cause to believe that the burglars and the stolen property were inside of room 31.
There also was reason to believe there was a risk of flight or of danger to others in the vicinity. The officers knew that the proceeds of the burglary included three handguns and ammunition, and they had reason to suspect the burglars would be armed. The only element of the tip not yet corroborated at the time the police asked that the door be opened was the information that the suspects intended to leave town that day to dispose of the goods. Since the rest of the tip had proven to be reliable, there was reason to suspect that attempted flight was imminent. In such exigent circumstances immediate police action is justified without the delay required to obtain a warrant. See Ball, 90 F.3d at 263.
For these reasons the police were justified in ordering the occupants to open the door and their conduct did not violate the fourth amendment. They went no further without first obtaining a warrant, and it was the occupants who opened the door wide enough to permit the burglarized property to be seen. The order suppressing the evidence should be reversed.

. The collective knowledge of all officers involved in an investigation is relevant to determining whether there was probable cause to make an arrest or search. See United States v. Horne, 4 F.3d 579, 585-86 (8th Cir.1993), cert. denied, 510 U.S. 1138, 114 S.Ct. 1121, 127 L.Ed.2d 430 (1994); United States v. Morgan, 997 F.2d 433, 435-36 (8th Cir.1993). In this case the officers had all been briefed on the circumstances of the burglary and the anonymous tip, and they were working right next to each other at the scene, responding to rapidly unfolding events. See United States v. Shareef, 100 F.3d 1491, 1504 (10th Cir.1996); Collins v. Nagle, 892 F.2d 489, 495 (6th Cir.1989).