Court Opinion

ID: 9549032
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 18:12:24.11324+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:19:45.748651
License: Public Domain

KAUS, J.
I respectfully dissent.
In conducting the “accelerated booking search” in this case, the police officer acted in conformity with a consistent line of California decisions which have explicitly approved such a practice in cases in which the People can show that the arrested person would have been subjected to the booking process in any event. (See People v. Bullwinkle (1980) 105 Cal.App.3d 82, 86-88 [164 Cal.Rptr. 163]; People v. Flores (1979) 100 Cal.App.3d 221, 229, 230 [160 Cal.Rptr. 839]; People v. Brown (1979) 88 Cal.App.3d 283, 293 [151 Cal.Rptr. 749]; People v. Barajas (1978) 81 Cal.App.3d 999, 1008-1009 [147 Cal.Rptr. 195].) Until today, this court has never cast doubt on the propriety of such a procedure; on the contrary, nearly a decade ago, we expressly declared, albeit in dictum, that “[w]e have no quarrel with [the accelerated booking] rationale if in fact the individual is to be subjected to the booking process.” (People v. Longwill (1975) 14 Cal.3d 943, 948 [123 Cal.Rptr. 297, 538 P.2d 753].) Since the factual pattern leading to an accelerated booking search arises in virtually every felony arrest, I would venture to guess that there have been thousands of such searches carried out in reliance on the previously unquestioned rulings on this point.1 Thus, even if I agreed with the majority that this line of decisions should now be disapproved, I would think that normal principles of retroactivity/prospectivity as applied in the search and seizure area would dictate that any change in the law be prospective. (See, e.g., In re Joe R. (1980) 27 Cal.3d 496, 511-512 [165 Cal.Rptr. 837, 612 P.2d 927]; People v. Kaanehe (1977) 19 Cal.3d 1, 10 [136 Cal.Rptr. 409, 559 P.2d 1028].)
My disagreement with the majority goes further, however, for I see no reason to disapprove the established “accelerated booking search” rule. Despite the majority’s parade of horribles, neither this case nor any of the previous accelerated booking search cases suggests that the California citi*732zenry is in danger of being subjected to on-the-street “strip searches”; surely we can deal with that problem if it ever arises. Similarly, I am not persuaded that in order to guard against the risk that in some cases police officers may falsely testify as to their presearch intent with respect to booking, we should adopt a broad prophylactic rule which invalidates all accelerated booking searches, even in instances where a suspect is arrested for a serious felony for which he would surely have been booked. I have no reason to believe that the risk of police perjury is any greater in this area than in any other.
In my view, the accelerated booking search rule can properly be seen as simply a limited and reasonable application of the “inevitable discovery” doctrine. (See generally People v. Superior Court (Tunch) (1978) 80 Cal.App.3d 665, 671-682 [145 Cal.Rptr. 795].) As the Court of Appeal explained in People v. Bullwinkle, supra, 105 Cal.App.3d at page 87: “Where it is shown that a suspect would have been jailed and thus subject to a booking search, the fact that a thorough search of the booking type occurs prior to the actual booking process does not render the search illegal, since no additional or greater intrusion on the privacy of the suspect is involved. ” (Italics added.) This is not an instance in which the “inevitable discovery” rationale threatens any value protected by the warrant requirement (see 3 La Pave, Search and Seizure (1978) § 11.4(a), pp. 623-624); the stationhouse booking search, which would inevitably turn up the same evidence found in the on-the-scene search, is, of course, routinely conducted without a warrant. Under these circumstances, the exclusion of evidence which the police would invariably have discovered a few minutes later in the course of the booking process serves no constitutionally significant purpose.
Accordingly, I conclude that the evidence was properly obtained and would reverse the order setting aside the information.
Richardson, J., concurred.
Appellant’s petition for a rehearing was denied December 1, 1983. Richardson, J., and Kaus, J., were of the opinion that the petition should be granted.

Many of these searches, of course, might also be justified under the traditional application of the search-incident-to-arrest rule, but if—as is often the case—an in-the-field search of a tote bag, purse, attache case, or the like, is conducted after the arrestee is in handcuffs or in the back seat of a police car, an officer may well candidly admit that the search was undertaken as an on-the-scene “inventory” or “accelerated booking” search rather than to prevent the immediate destruction of evidence or to protect the officer’s safety.