Court Opinion

ID: 9747293
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 15:09:03.565431+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:22.530793
License: Public Domain

HOFFMAN, Judge,
concurring:
Although I concur in the result reached by the majority, I write separately because I respectfully disagree with the rationale of the opinion.
The majority states that it is uncontested that Officer Milligan had reasonable and articulable grounds for stopping Parker. The majority holds, however, that subsequent to Officer Milligan’s issuance of a citation to Parker for driving with a suspended license, Milligan was precluded by both the Pennsylvania and United States Constitutions from asking any further questions. I disagree.
First, the majority holds that Officer Milligan’s request to search Parker’s car constituted a detention in violation of *408Parker’s Fourth Amendment rights. In support of its contention, that absent reasonable suspicion of criminal activity, Officer Milligan’s authority was limited to the issuance of a citation, the majority cites Commonwealth v. Lopez, 415 Pa.Super. 252, 609 A.2d 177 (1992). Lopez, however, does not support the broad proposition that a police request to search constitutes a detention triggering Fourth Amendment protection.
In Lopez, this court addressed the constitutionality of each increment of the police confrontation separately. Similar to the instant case, the initial stop of Lopez for a traffic violation was found permissible. Thereafter, however, the court found that the officer’s retention of Lopez’s driver’s license and automobile rental agreement, while the officer asked Lopez a series of questions, constituted an impermissible detention because the officer had no reasonable grounds to suspect an illegal transaction in drugs or other serious crime. Id., 609 A.2d at 182. The court found that Lopez’s consent was vitiated by the illegal detention. “Because we conclude that the detention of Lopez was illegal, Lopez’s consent to the search of the Volkswagen was tainted by the illegality and was ineffective to justify the search.” Id. This court did not find, however, that the officer’s request to search Lopez’s car in and of itself constituted a detention. The illegal detention resulted from the officer’s retention of Lopez’s license and rental agreement. Hence, I respectfully disagree that Officer Milligan’s request to search Parker’s vehicle constituted a detention triggering Parker’s Fourth Amendment rights.
Subsequent to Officer Milligan’s issuance of the citation, neither the presiding officers’ conduct or verbal statements could be denoted as a restraint of Parker’s liberty. Parker has failed to introduce any evidence indicating that a reasonable person under the same circumstances would have believed that he was not free to leave after the issuance of the citation. “Not all intercourse between policemen and citizens involves seizures of persons. [Citation omitted]. Only when the officer, by physical force or a show of authority, has in some way restrained the liberty of an individual may we *409conclude that a seizure has occurred.” Commonwealth v. Lidge, 399 Pa.Super. 360, 366, 582 A.2d 383, 386 (1990) alloc. denied, 527 Pa. 598, 589 A.2d 689 (1991). I decline to hold that a request to search, without more, constitutes an investigative detention.
The majority further holds that the existence of a microcassette tape recorder four and a half to five inches in size affixed beneath the driver’s seat of appellant’s vehicle failed to provide the police with probable cause for the tape’s seizure pursuant to the plain view doctrine. Once again, I respectfully disagree.
Probable cause does not deal in certainties; rather, a court is faced with the factual and practical considerations of everyday life which affect how reasonable and prudent men act. Commonwealth v. Trenge, 305 Pa.Super. 386, 395, 451 A.2d 701, 705 (1982); Commonwealth v. Tolbert, 235 Pa.Super. 227, 230, 341 A.2d 198, 200 (1975). Pennsylvania’s Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Act prohibits the willful interception of oral communication. 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 5703(1). Contrary to the majority’s holding, it is difficult to discern what purpose other than the surreptitious recording of another’s oral communication could be served by appellant’s placement of a microcassette tape recorder beneath the seat of his car. Although mere suspicion is not a substitute for probable cause as grounds for a search and seizure, 1 am of the opinion that probable cause justified Officer Kern’s seizure of the tape.
Nevertheless, I agree with the majority’s holding that regardless of whether probable cause existed for the seizure of the tape, a search warrant was required subsequent to the tape’s seizure before the tape could properly be played.
The fourth amendment protects two types of expectations, one involving “searches,” and the other “seizures.” United States v. Jacobsen, 466 U.S. 109, 114, 104 S.Ct. 1652, 1656, 80 L.Ed.2d 85 (1984). A “search” occurs when an expectation of privacy that society is prepared to consider reasonable is infringed. Id. I find that private tape recordings are within the same class of objects as letters in which the public at large has a justifiable expectation of privacy. See United States v. *410Van Leeuwen, 397 U.S. 249, 90 S.Ct. 1029, 25 L.Ed.2d 282 (1970). Hence, although the police may have justifiably seized the tape pursuant to the plain view doctrine, they nonetheless were required to obtain a search warrant prior to the playing of the tape. Thus, I concur in the result reached by the majority.