Court Opinion

ID: 9429118
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:25:43.486639+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:17.274175
License: Public Domain

Justice Powell,
concurring.
I join the plurality opinion. This is an airport “stop for questioning” case similar in its general setting to that before us in United States v. Mendenhall, 446 U. S. 544 (1980).1 The plurality opinion today has discussed helpfully the principles applicable to investigative stops for questioning. Since I was the author of one of the opinions in Mendenhall, id., at 560, I write briefly to repeat that the public has a compelling interest in identifying by all lawful means those who traffic in illicit drugs for personal profit. As the plurality opinion emphasizes, ante, at 506-507, the facts and circumstances of investigative stops necessarily vary. In view of the extent to which air transportation is used in the drug traffic, the fact that the stop at issue is made by trained officers in an airport warrants special consideration.2
This case, however, differs strikingly from Mendenhall in the circumstances following the lawful initial questioning and the request that the suspect accompany the officers to a more private place. Royer then found himself in a small, windowless room — described as a “large closet” — alone with two officers who, without his consent, already had obtained possession of his checked luggage. In addition, they had retained his driver’s license and airline ticket. Neither the evidence *509in this case nor common sense suggests that Royer was free to walk away. I agree with the plurality that as a practical matter he then was under arrest, and his surrender of the luggage key to the officers cannot be viewed as consensual.

 As the plurality notes, ante, at 504, n. 9, five Justices in Mendenhall were of the view that the respondent in that case had not been illegally detained, and therefore that she had consented to be searched.

 Since 1974 the Drug Enforcement Administration has assigned highly skilled agents to the major airports as part of a nationwide program to intercept drug couriers. These agents are guided in part by a “drug courier profile” that identifies characteristics that experience has shown to be relevant in identifying suspects. See Mendenhall, 446 U. S., at 562.