Court Opinion

ID: 9714651
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 05:42:16.165227+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:27.432788
License: Public Domain

Concurring Opinion
Hunter, C.J.
I feel it incumbent upon me to briefly state the reasons for my concurrence with the majority opinion in this case. The crux of the issue is whether the shining of the arresting officer’s flashlight into the rear seat area of appellant’s automobile constituted a “search” so as to invoke the legal principles recently espoused in the case of Paxton v. State (1970), 255 Ind. 264, 263 N. E. 2d 636 cited by the dissent. I am in full agreement with the majority’s position that the mere shining of the flashlight into the car did not constitute a “search” as that term is currently defined by this Court. Nor do I find helpful, as does apparently my dissenting brother, an analysis of the factors that motivated or prompted the officer to shine his flashlight into the rear seat area, for in fact, I find nothing in the record which would aid in such an analysis or lend itself to the conclusions drawn in the dissenting opinion.
There can be no doubt that had the incident here under review taken place in the daytime, the articles “discovered” would have been lawfully found under the plain view doctrine, they being subject to casual view through the car window. The mere fact that the observation was made possible by artificial means rather than with the aid of daylight should *499not, in my opinion, alter our analysis of the legal propriety of the police officer’s actions.
There being no constitutionally protected “search” here, we need not consider the applicability of the principles stated in Paxton v. State, supra.