Court Opinion

ID: 9698407
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 19:49:41.295111+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:40.758377
License: Public Domain

CADY, Justice
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent. The majority determines the backyard of Lewis’ residence to be a protected area under the Fourth Amendment and article I, section 8 of the Iowa Constitution and then confines its analysis of the constitutionality of the police activity by looking to see if the police conduct fits within one of two recognized exceptions to the warrant requirement: probable cause coupled with exigent circumstances and hot pursuit. I agree the backyard was a protected area and the police were not permitted to enter based upon probable cause and exigent circumstances or hot pursuit. Yet, the problem with the majority’s analysis is that it neglects to judge the police under the proper standard. The police went to the premises to conduct an investigation and must be judged by the standard governing such activity, not by the standard applied when the police enter premises to conduct a search.
Typically, courts do not consider police entry onto the curtilage of a home for the purpose of conducting a routine investigation to be a search under a constitutional analysis. Thus, it is not recognized as one of our recognized exceptions to the warrant requirement. The investigation is not normally a search because it typically is confined to those areas where any other visitor to the home could approach to speak with the occupants. However, it may turn into a search if police venture into an area of the curtilage that is constitutionally protected. Nevertheless, even this intrusion for investigative purposes does not violate constitutional prohibitions if the intrusion was reasonable.
Search and seizure jurisprudence requires a two-step analysis. Once an intrusion on a protected interest is found, the reasonableness of the path the police used to locate the occupant of the particular residence becomes the critical point in the analysis. See State v. Naujoks, 637 N.W.2d 101, 106 (2001). The opinion of the majority, however, fails to properly consider this important analysis.
A good example of the proper analysis in a ease of this nature is found in Breuer, 577 N.W.2d 41. In Breuer, the police went to the defendant’s duplex apartment building to investigate a reckless driving complaint recently lodged against the defendant. Id. at 43. Upon their arrival, the police approached the front door of the *528duplex and rang the doorbell. Id. After receiving no response, the police opened the door, entered a stairway/hallway, and knocked on the door to the defendant’s apartment unit. Id. After the defendant opened his door, police smelled the odor of burning marijuana. Id. The defendant was eventually arrested for possession of a controlled substance and sought to suppress the evidence at trial as an unreasonable search under both state and federal constitutional provisions. Id.
We began our analysis in Breuer by first observing the two-step approach required under the Fourth Amendment. Id. at 45. We first looked to determine if the defendant had a legitimate expectation of privacy in the hallway and, if so, whether the police intrusion into the protected area was reasonable. Id. Although we found the hallway area was protected, we nevertheless determined the police intrusion was reasonable based on three reasons. First, the intrusion “was related to a legitimate objective of gathering information as part of an investigation” and was not done randomly. Id. at 48. Second, the police did not have any prior knowledge the defendant was involved in drug activity, but approached the residence solely to investigate the reckless driving complaint. See id. Finally, considering the right of police to approach a person’s private property to speak with the person concerning a police investigation, the entry into the particular protected area constituted a minimal intrusion upon the defendant’s expectation to privacy. Id. at 48-49.
This is the precise analysis required in this ease. Once the majority finds the backyard to be a protected area, Breuer requires a review of the facts and circumstances to determine if the investigative intrusion by police was nevertheless reasonable.
The reasonableness of the police action in going into the backyard in this case is supported by several circumstances. First, as in Breuer, the entry was related to a legitimate police investigation. Id. at 48. The house was located in a high crime area and the neighborhood homeowners had notified police of trouble with trespassing and loitering on leased property. As a part of a neighborhood crime prevention effort, the owner of the particular house rented by Lewis authorized police to arrest any trespassers. Armed with this knowledge, and after observing a gathering of people in the backyard of Lewis’ home, police thought they should investigate to see if Lewis was present and had authorized the gathering. Second, as in Breuer, police did not know Lewis was involved in any drug activity. Id. Instead, the investigation was solely to determine if the occupants in the backyard were trespassers. Third, as in Breuer, the intrusion was minimal. Id. at 49. The area outside a house does not generally enjoy the same level of privacy as the area inside a house, especially when it is visible from public areas outside the property, as in this case.
Of course, one fact in Breuer, absent in this case, is that police first went to the front door to locate the resident before intruding into the protected area. Nevertheless, there is no constitutional requirement that police must first knock on the front door before going into other areas of the curtilage. We emphatically rejected this type of claim in Breuer when we said:
“ ‘[t]he reasonableness of any particular government activity does not necessarily or invariably turn on the existence of alternative “less intrusive” means.’ ”
Id. (citation omitted); accord State v. Jones, 666 N.W.2d 142, 149 (Iowa 2003) (“[Cjonstitutional search and seizure provisions do not require the least intrusive action possible. Instead, they require a *529measurement of ‘reasonableness, under all the circumstances.’ ”) (Citation omitted)). Moreover, other courts have rejected a hard and fast rule that police must knock at the front door before making any attempt to contact the occupant of the house at another location on the premises. See Alvarez v. Montgomery County, 147 F.3d 354, 358 (4th Cir.1998). Such an inflexible approach is contrary to the accepted principle that “[t]he textual ‘touchstone of the Fourth Amendment is reasonableness.’” Id. (quoting Florida v. Jimeno, 500 U.S. 248, 250, 111 S.Ct. 1801, 1803, 114 L.Ed.2d 297, 302 (1991) (citation omitted)); accord Jones, 666 N.W.2d at 149. The “Supreme Court has ‘consistently eschewed bright-line rules, instead emphasizing the fact-specific nature of the reasonableness inquiry.’ ” Alvarez, 147 F.3d at 358 (quoting Ohio v. Robinette, 519 U.S. 33, 39, 117 S.Ct. 417, 421, 136 L.Ed.2d 347, 354 (1996)). Thus, many courts have permitted police to enter a backyard for a legitimate law enforcement investigation without first knocking on the front door. Id. at 358-59. Clearly, entry into the backyard is not unreasonable simply because police do not first knock at the front door.
The reasonableness of the entry into the backyard without first approaching and knocking on the front door in this case is evident from the activity that took place after the police drove into the driveway. The police observed two men behind the gate to the backyard who quickly turned and walked toward the enclosed porch despite a police command to stop. The majority concludes this fact cannot be considered in supporting the police actions because the two men had a right to walk away. I agree the two men had a right to walk away, but the majority is mistaken in its conclusion that walking away is a circumstance that cannot be considered. In Illinois v. Wardlow, the Supreme Court made it clear that the right to walk away from approaching law enforcement officers is only a right of the person to “[go] about one’s business,” not evade reasonable police investigation. 528 U.S. 119, 125, 120 S.Ct. 673, 676, 145 L.Ed.2d 570, 577 (2000). In fact, flight is the opposite of “going about one’s business,” and flight in response to the sight of police can be used to support reasonable suspicion in the context of a high crime neighborhood. See id. at 124-25, 120 S.Ct. at 676, 145 L.Ed.2d at 576-77.
Therefore, the police in this case could properly consider the hasty movements of the two men into the backyard as part of their investigation, and this evidence can also be used to support the reasonableness of the police conduct in going into the backyard without first knocking on the front door. The police were aware many people had assembled in the backyard and the two men’s flight revealed a direct, readily accessible means to contact the people on the premises. The backyard was visible from the fence, some of the people in the backyard were visible, and the distance from the gate to the back porch area was short. Under the circumstances, it was not unreasonable that the path taken by the two men might lead the police to the tenant. It would seem impractical for the police to go to the front door in an effort to locate the tenant.
I would conclude the police properly entered the backyard in the pursuit of a legitimate police investigation. Consequently, the police were in an area they were entitled to be when they smelled the presence of marijuana. At this point, the entry ceased to be a police investigation. However, by that time the police had acquired probable cause and their subsequent conduct was not violative of the Fourth Amendment or article one, section eight of the Iowa Constitution.
*530I would affirm the decision of the district court.
LARSON, J., joins this dissent.