Court Opinion

ID: 9755496
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 20:39:33.344429+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:07.994512
License: Public Domain

R OBERT L. BROWN, Justice, concurring. In recent years, the phenomenon of the “knock and talk” procedure has come into vogue as a substitute for obtaining either a nighttime or a daytime search warrant. Police officers simply accost a person at his or her home, because they do not have sufficient proof to establish probable cause for a search warrant. The police officers obtain a verbal consent to search the home from the homeowner and proceed with the search. The procedure has been upheld as passing muster under the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, regardless of whether it takes place during the day or at night. See, e.g., Rogers v. Pendleton, 249 F.3d 279 (4th Cir. 2001); United States v. Jones, 239 F.3d 716 (5th Cir. 2001); United States v. Johnson, 170 F.3d 708 (7th Cir. 1999). What is troublesome about the “knock and talk” procedure, particularly when it occurs at night which was the circumstance in the case before us, is the intimidation factor (usually two to four police officers are involved) and the message conveyed, either verbally or by insinuation, that if a consent is not given, the police officers will simply get a search warrant and come back. “Knock and talk” has become the subject of much debate, in part because it is unclear whether the consenting individual is ever fully aware that he or she can invoke constitutional protections and refuse to give consent. See, e.g., United States v. Jerez, 108 F.3d 684, 691 (7th Cir. 1997) (particularly discussing the inherent coerciveness of a knock- and-talk which occurs “in the middle of the night”); Scott v. State, 366 Md. 121, 782 A.2d 862 (2001); State v. Ferrier, 960 P.2d 927 (Wash. 1998). The Washington Supreme Court has interpreted its state constitution to require that police officers must inform homeowners of their right to refuse a consent to search before a valid search may commence. See State v. Ferrier, supra. In that case, four police officers conducted a “knock and talk” on the appellant’s home because they did not want to reveal the identity of their informant to a magistrate in order to get a search warrant. The appellant argued that the “knock and talk” at her home violated her right to privacy under the Washington Constitution. The Washington Supreme Court agreed and determined that the Washington Constitution provided greater protection than the U.S. Constitution with respect to the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures, id. at 111 (citing State v. Gunwall, 720 P.2d 808 (Wash. 1986)),1 and held as follows: [W]e conclude that the knock and talk, as carried out here, violated Ferrier’s state constitutional right to privacy in her home and, thus, vitiated the consent she gave. This is so because she was not advised, prior to giving her consent to the search of her home, that she could refuse consent. Id. at 115. In imposing the new requirement, the Washington Supreme Court did not distinguish between “knock and talk” searches conducted at day or night. Id. See also Graves v. State, 708 So. 2d 858, 862 (Miss. 1998) (interpreting the Mississippi state constitution to require a “knowledgeable waiver” of the right to refuse consent to search, which is defined as “consent where the defendant knows that he or she has a right to refuse, being cognizant of his or her rights in the premises”). No state, either by statute or court decision, currently requires that a homeowner sign a written consent form advising that homeowner of a right to refuse the search before the search can begin. Yet, such consent forms are being used by individual law enforcement agencies in Arkansas as came to light in a recent “knock and talk” case submitted to this Court for decision. See Scott v. State, S. Ct. No. CR2000-51 (submitted on review Jan. 10, 2002). I think using consent forms has merit. Requiring a homeowner to execute a consent form before the search begins would be tangible proof that a consent was given. The language of the form, in addition, would ensure that the individual is presented with the fact that consent can be refused. It would not eliminate all controversy surrounding a “knock and talk” consent, but it would remove some of the credibility battles between police officers and homeowners as well as other evidentiary quagmires that currently afflict our courts in this context, much as the Miranda waiver form has done for police interrogations. A requirement for execution of a written consent form would be consistent with other actions this court has taken to guard against unreasonable searches and seizures under our state constitution. For example, this court has been in the vanguard of other jurisdictions in protecting a person and his or her “castle” against unreasonable searches and seizures at night. See Ark. R. Crim. P. 13.2(c) (setting out specific findings a magistrate must make for a nighttime search). We have strictly enforced this rule and made certain that police officers satisfy its criteria when presenting an affidavit for a nighttime search to a judge. See Fouse v. State, 337 Ark. 13, 989 S.W.2d 146 (1999); Richardson v. State, 314 Ark. 512, 863 S.W.2d 572 (1993); Garner v. State, 307 Ark. 353, 820 S.W.2d 446 (1991). Though I agree with the majority that an invalid search began before the consent was given in this case, I offer the written consent form as additional protection against unreasonable daytime or nighttime searches. Corbin and Hannah, JJ„ join.   In Gunwall, the Washington Supreme Court developed six factors which govern whether or not it will extend greater protection under its constitution than the federal courts extend under the federal constitution. One of those factors is whether the wording of relevant state and federal constitutional provisions is similar. While Arkansas’s analog to the Fourth Amendment is worded similarly, that is not a barrier to our extending greater protections under the Arkansas Constitution. Other state courts have done so. See, e.g., Virmani v. Presbyterian Health Serv. Corp., 350 N.C. 449, 515 S.E.2d 675 (1999) (“We have said that even where provisions of the state and federal Constitutions are identical, ‘we have the authority to construe our own constitution differently from the construction by the United States Supreme Court of the Federal Constitution, as long as our citizens are thereby accorded no lesser rights than they are guaranteed by the parallel federal provision.’ ”); People v. Belton, 55 N.Y.2d 49, 447 N.Y.S.2d 873, 432 N.E.2d 745 (1982) (finding greater protection under state constitution despite similar wording of relevant federal and state search and seizure provision).