Court Opinion

ID: 9656369
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 19:47:14.430552+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:30.838625
License: Public Domain

SHIRLEY S. ABRAHAMSON, J.
(dissenting). As a result of the decision in this case, if a witness reports to the police that:
(1) a few moments ago, on this dark, rainy night he saw a car being driven erratically into a field;
(2) he observed and spoke with the driver of the car but does not know the name of the driver;
(3) the driver staggered and had slurred speech but that the witness had no opportunity to smell any alcohol on the driver’s breath;
(4) the driver was either very inebriated or very sick; and
(5) there was no damage to any person or any property;
then the police officers, relying on a statute allowing an officer to arrest a person without a warrant for violating a civil traffic regulation (a civil, not a criminal offense) *340committed outside his presence, after checking to find that the title to the car is in your name, may, without your consent and without having a search warrant or arrest warrant issued by a judicial officer:
(1) go to your home at night;
(2) enter your home;
(3) climb the stairs to your second-floor bedroom;
(4) look around your bedroom to see if the clothes you took off match the description of the clothes worn by the driver of the car; and
(5) ask you, as you lie naked in your bed, to get out of bed so that the officers can determine whether you are intoxicated.
I dissent because I conclude that this warrantless invasion into your privacy in your home to investigate whether you violated a civil traffic statute contravenes sec. 11, Art. I, of the Wisconsin constitution and the fourth amendment to the federal constitution which guarantee “[t]he right of the. people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures. . . .”
The essence of the fourth amendment is that a judicial officer with the power to issue a warrant, not a policeman or government agent, decides whether the government can enter your home without your consent. As Justice Jackson so eloquently stated:
“Any assumption that evidence sufficient to support a magistrate’s disinterested determination to issue a search warrant will justify the officers in making a search without a warrant would reduce the Amendment to a nullity and leave the people’s homes secure only in the discretion of police officers. . . . When the right of privacy must reasonably yield to the right of search is, as a rule, to be decided by a judicial officer, not by a policeman or government enforcement agent.” Johnson v. United States, 333 U.S. 10, 14 (1948).
*341In a free society a warrant provides fourth amendment protection (1) by substituting the judgment of a judicial officer for that of the police officer; (2) by preventing hindsight from coloring the determination of probable cause; and (3) by providing the person subject to the arrest with assurance that the police officer is acting within lawful authority. United States v. Martinez-Fuerte, 428 U.S. 543, 565-66 (1976). Under our constitution a warrantless arrest is unreasonable except in a few “jealously and carefully drawn” exceptional circumstances. Jones v. United States, 357 U.S. 493, 499 (1958).
In our country a warrantless entry into a home by a police officer is presumed unreasonable, because our society recognizes the special sanctity of the home. In Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 585-86 (1980), the United States Supreme Court clearly proclaimed that the “ ‘physical entry of the home is the chief evil against which the wording of the Fourth Amendment is directed/ ” and that “it is a ‘basic principle of Fourth Amendment law’ that searches and seizures inside a home without a warrant are presumptively unreasonable.” It is only when “exigencies of the situation . . . make war-rantless entry imperative” that warrantless entry into a person’s home may be condoned. Laasch v. State, 84 Wis. 2d 587, 594, 267 N.W.2d 278 (1978). (Emphasis added.)
I dissent because I conclude that the warrantless intrusion into the defendant’s home in the instant case is unconstitutional. First, I have grave doubts as to the constitutionality of sec. 345.22, Stats. 1977, authorizing a warrantless arrest for violation of a civil traffic offense committed outside the officer’s presence. Absent sec. 345.22 the officer has no statutory or common law authority to arrest the defendant without a warrant. Second, assuming arguendo that a police officer has authority to arrest the defendant without a warrant for vio*342lation of a civil traffic offense committed outside the officer’s presence if the officer had reasonable grounds to believe that the person violated a traffic regulation, the facts in this record do not support the majority’s conclusion that the officer had probable cause to believe that the defendant committed the civil offense of operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated. Third, the facts do not justify the legal conclusion that the circumstances were exigent, making the warrantless entry into the defendant’s home “imperative.” Laasck v. State, supra, 84 Wis. 2d at 594.
Arrest for a Civil Offense. In contrast to the cases cited and relied upon by the majority to justify a war-rantless entry into the defendant’s home, this case does not involve a warrantless arrest for a felony. This case does not involve a warrantless arrest for a misdemeanor. This case does not even involve a warrantless arrest for the violation of a civil traffic statute committed in the presence of an officer. This case involves a warrantless arrest for the violation of a civil traffic statute committed outside the presence of an officer.
The majority concludes that the officer’s power to arrest is predicated on sec. 345.22, Stats. 1977, which states:
“345.22 Authority to arrest without a warrant. A person may be arrested without a warrant for the violation of a traffic regulation if the traffic officer has reasonable grounds to believe that the person is violating or has violated a traffic regulation.”1
*343Sec. 345.22 is a departure from the common law doctrine of arrest and from the long-standing rules of arrest in Wisconsin. The statute was enacted in 1971. The longstanding Wisconsin rules of arrest allowed an officer to make a warrantless arrest if the officer had probable cause to believe the person was committing or had committed a felony or to believe the person was committing or had committed a misdemeanor or an ordinance violation. The officer could not, however, make a warrantless arrest if the misdemeanor or ordinance violation was not committed in the officer’s presence unless other factors existed. Sec. 954.03, Stats. 1967. The common law, in contrast to the Wisconsin law, was more restrictive as to the officer’s power to make a warrantless arrest for a misdemeanor. At common law the arrest was permissible only if the misdemeanor was committed in the presence of the officer and constituted a breach of the peace. State v. Smith, 50 Wis. 2d 460, 469, 472, 184 N.W.2d 889 (1971).
The validity of sec. 345.22, which authorizes a war-rantless arrest for violation of a civil statute when the violation was committed outside the presence of the officer cannot be assumed. The constitutionality of a war-rantless arrest for a felony committed outside the presence of an officer was not settled until 1976, and then by a divided United States Supreme Court. In United States v. Watson, 423 U.S. 411 (1976), the Court declared constitutional a daytime warrantless arrest in a public place for a felony committed outside the presence of the *344officer. The Court upheld the warrantless felony arrest in that case, reasoning that siich an arrest is based on accepted common law doctrine of arrest and that if felony arrests were permissible only with a warrant or only in exigent circumstances effective criminal law enforcement would be significantly handicapped. The reasoning of the Watson cáse cannot be applied to uphold sec. 345.-22. I cannot find that the common law allowed a war-rantless arrest for the violation of a civil statute committed outside the presence of an officer. The police apparently have the authority to issue a traffic citation to a person who violated a traffic law ordering the person to present himself at court at a certain time. If we conclude that the police officer must get a warrant to arrest such a person, the effective enforcement of the traffic law will not be significantly handicapped and the constitutional protection of the sanctity of the home will be enhanced.
I have found no cases, and the majority cites none, upholding a warrantless arrest, either in a public place or in a home, for a civil traffic offense committed outside the presence of the officer. All the cases and commentary cited by the majority address the question of the validity of an arrest for a violation of a criminal statute. In Camara v. Municipal Court, 387 U.S. 523, 540 (1967), the Court concluded that in the absence of compelling urgency a warrantless administrative public health search of a home violates the fourteenth amendment. Neither the defendant nor the state discusses the question of the validity of sec. 345.22. Because the validity of sec. 345.22 is of significance to traffic law enforcement in general, I would ask the parties for further briefing on this question.
At this stage, however, I wish to express my doubts about the constitutionality of sec. 345.22, Stats. 1977, to the extent that it authorizes a warrantless arrest on *345probable cause for a civil traffic offense committed outside the presence of an officer. Requiring a warrant in civil traffic cases would protect the privacy of the individual guaranteed by the constitution and would not unduly burden law enforcement. If there are exceptions to the warrant requirement in civil traffic cases, these have to be defined.
Assuming arguendo that the law applicable to warrant-less felony arrests can be applied without change to war-rantless arrests for civil traffic offenses committed outside the presence of a police officer, I conclude there was no probable cause or exigent circumstances.
Probable Cause. In reviewing the decision of the circuit court as to probable cause, this court will not overturn findings of fact unless against the great weight and clear preponderance of the evidence, but this court will independently examine the record to make its own determination of the legal question, namely, whether the constitutional requirement of probable cause is satisfied.
The circuit court in this case stated its decision from the bench. The circuit court merely concluded that “the police did have probable cause to believe that the defendant had committed the offense of operating while under the influence." The circuit court did not make any findings of fact, did not make any analysis or summary of the evidence, and did not analyze the legal principles it used to reach its legal conclusion.
There are disputed facts in this case and the credibility of witnesses is at issue. Generally where the circuit court does not expressly make a finding necessary to support its legal conclusion, this court can assume that the circuit court made the finding in the way that supports its decision. Sohns v. Jensen, 11 Wis. 2d 449, 453, 105 N.W.2d 818 (1960). See also State v. Fillyaw, 104 Wis. 2d 700, 727-28, 312 N.W.2d 795 (1981) (Abrahamson, J., concurring). The majority’s de novo review of the record must therefore be to determine the legal signifi-*346canee of the facts, not to decide the disputed facts and the credibility of witnesses.
When an arrest is made without a warrant the state bears the burden of proving the existence of probable cause. Leroux v. State, 58 Wis. 2d 671, 682, 207 N.W.2d 589 (1973). In the case at bar a determination by this court of the legal question of probable cause to believe that the defendant was driving while under the influence of an intoxicant turns on three pieces of information known to the officer making the arrest.
The first piece of information is the ownership of the car. This information is relied upon to establish that it is probable that the defendant was the driver of the car. Jablonic did not describe the driver sufficiently for the officer to be able to identify the defendant as the driver. The officer had to reason that because the defendant was the owner of the car, he was probably the driver.
The second piece of information on which the determination of probable cause turns is that the defendant had been arrested previously in an alcohol-related disturbance. This information is relied upon to establish that the defendant was probably intoxicated. There is no indication in the record as to the nature of the alcohol-related disturbance; as to whom, if anyone, was intoxicated during this alcohol-related disturbance; as to the nature of the offense for which the defendant was previously arrested; whether there was any finding of probable cause for the arrest; or whether any further civil or criminal proceedings against the defendant resulted from the arrest. The majority opinion says that the officer “did correctly recall” the arrest. (Emphasis added.) Supra, p. 325. See also supra, pp. 331, 332 where the majority states that the officer’s recollection was accurate and correct. There is nothing in the record which indicates whether the officer’s recollec*347tion about the previous arrest of the defendant is correct or incorrect.
I need not reach the question of when a defendant’s previous arrest may be relevant and probative in determining probable cause. In the case at bar the officer’s testimony as to the defendant’s prior arrest is so sketchy and subject to so many interpretations that neither the circuit court nor this court can use the information about the arrest to help form its independent determination whether the facts in the possession of the officer are as a matter of law sufficient to constitute probable cause.
The third, and most important, and perhaps the only piece of information on which the determination of probable cause turns, is Jablonic’s statement to the officer. This information is relied upon to establish that the driver was probably intoxicated. The critical element in determining pr'obable cause in the case at bar is whether the information which Jablonic, a reliable eyewitness, gave the police officer is sufficient to lead a reasonable police officer to believe that the driver was probably driving under the influence of an intoxicant.
Jablonic, the only person available with first-hand information about the driver and his driving, testified that the driver was walking and speaking with difficulty and that he was either intoxicated or sick. Even though, as he testified, he was familiar with the signs of intoxication, Jablonic had good reason to be uncertain. The weather was bad, and visibility was poor. Further, Jablonic was not able to verify or discard his intoxication theory because he did not have the opportunity to smell any alcohol when the driver spoke to him and asked him for a ride. I acknowledge that the mere fact that an innocent explanation for the driver’s conduct, that is, illness, may be imagined is not enough to defeat probable cause. 1 LaFave, Search and Seizure, sec. 3.2(e), pp. 483-84 (1978). But in this case the innocent explana*348tion for the driver’s conduct is not imagined; the innocent explanation is provided by the only witness, and it is provided as a real possibility.2 The majority, without explanation and without any basis in the record, characterizes Jablonic’s reference to illness as “merely a remote possibility which provided an alternative, more charitable explanation.” Supra, p. 325.
The officer’s testimony of what Jablonic told him is inconsistent with Jablonic’s testimony. The officer testified that Jablonic had a definite opinion that the driver *349was intoxicated.3 Other aspects of the officer’s testimony, however, indicate that Jablonic had conveyed his uncertainty to the officer as to whether or not the driver was intoxicated. The officer’s own testimony indicates that he went to the defendant’s residence to investigate the defendant’s condition, not to arrest the defendant. Thus in response to the question as to what was the officer’s “mental intent, when you went into the house, to have him arrested for drunken driving,” the officer answered,
It was only after making the warrantless entry into the home, observing the defendant “wringing wet,” seeing in the bedroom defendant’s clothes which matched the clothes Jablonic described and smelling alcohol that the officer himself concluded he had sufficient information to lead him to believe that the defendant probably committed the offense of driving while under the influence of an intoxicant and decided to arrest the defendant.
Although the majority states that the circuit court reached “the conclusion that Jablonic conveyed the definite impression that the driver was intoxicated” (supra, *350p. 324), nowhere in the record did the circuit court state such a conclusion or even hint it reached such a conclusion. The circuit court’s only reference to Jablonic’s testimony is a reference by the circuit court to its notes which quote Jablonic as telling the officer that the driver was either sick or intoxicated. If any conclusion of the circuit court might be gleaned from the record as to the circuit court’s finding of credibility as to Jablonic’s or the officer’s version of what Jablonic told the officer, and I do not know that any can be, it is that the circuit court relying on its notes concluded that Jablonic offered two explanations to the police officer for the driver’s conduct — intoxication and illness. The most appropriate construction of the record is, however, that the circuit court concluded that it need not decide which witness to believe because whichever witness it believed the evidence was adequate to establish probable cause.
The majority seeks to bolster its conclusion that the officer had probable cause by relying on the officer’s testimony as to what the daughter and the wife said when the officer entered the house. The daughter was not present to testify. The wife, without objection, related the daughter’s version of what had happened, and the wife’s testimony contradicts the officer’s. The circuit court expressly avoided having to determine whose testimony it believed, the wife’s or the officer’s, and therefore the majority cannot use the officer’s disputed testimony to bolster its conclusion.
Although the subjective conclusions of the police officer concerning the existence of or lack of existence of probable cause do not bind a court, the officer’s apparent decision in the case at bar that the eyewitness furnished information sufficient to warrant further investigation but did not furnish information sufficient to lead him to believe that the defendant probably committed the offense of driving while under the influence of an intoxicant has some weight in this court’s independent determination *351of whether the information relayed to the officer was sufficient. Instead of saying that he intended to arrest the defendant but that he would have refrained from making the arrest if he found that the defendant was not intoxicated, the officer concluded on the record that it was his “intent to investigate . . . and make a determination.” The majority cannot, try as it will, change the officer's words.
On the basis of the record in this case, I conclude that the state did not present sufficient facts to prove that information in the officer’s possession was sufficient to satisfy the constitutional standard of probable cause. I conclude that when the officers entered the residence, they could only suspect that the defendant may have been the driver and that the driver may have been under the influence of an intoxicant. Reasonable suspicion (that is, ample factual justification falling short of what is required to support arrest or search) may be sufficient to justify further investigation, and in some situations, to justify a stop but it is not sufficient to justify a war-rantless arrest. Brown v. Texas, 443 US 47, 51 (1979) ; Terry v. Ohio, 392 US 1, 22 (1968) ; Wong Sun v. United States, 371 US 471, 479 (1963); State v. Cheers, 102 Wis. 2d 367, 386-87, 306 N.W.2d 676 (1981); Bies v. State, 76 Wis. 2d 457, 465-66, 251 N.W.2d 461 (1977).
The majority opinion, in the section entitled probable cause, discusses the government’s interest in eradicating drunk driving. Supra, pp. 333-335. The relevance of this discussion is not readily apparent. First, granting the police the power that the majority does in this case “does not appear sufficiently productive to qualify as a reasonable law enforcement practice under the Fourth Amendment.” Delaware v. Prouse, 440 U.S. 648, 660 (1979). The contribution to highway safety of allowing warrant-less arrests in the home of persons who are reported to have driven erratically and who are described as drunk *352or sick and who caused no damage to property or person is marginal at best.
Second, if the police officer had probable cause to make the arrest, the government’s interest and the seriousness of the offense are irrelevant. If the police officer did not have probable cause to arrest, the arrest is unconstitutional and the government’s interest and the relative seriousness óf the offense are irrelevant. If the majority’s discussion of the government’s interest is the majority’s way of saying that the seriousness of the offense is a factor for the police and the courts to consider in determining probable cause, the majority is making a dramatic change in the law of probable cause and is establishing a balancing, sliding scale test that would be difficult for both police and courts to comprehend and apply. 1 LaFave, Search and Seizure, sec. 3.2(a), pp. 450-58 (1978).4
*353Exigent circumstances. Even if there is probable cause to believe the defendant has committed a felony, a warrant is required to enter a home unless exceptional circumstances are present which justify a warrantless entry. United States v. Johnson, -U.S.- (June 21, 1982) ; Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573 (1980) ; Laasch v. State, 84 Wis.2d 587, 267 N.W.2d 278 (1978). Payton and Laasch, upon which the majority relies, are authority only for the proposition that a warrantless arrest in a home may be permissible under exigent circumstances if the officer has probable cause to believe a felony has been committed. These cases are not authority for a rule that a warrantless arrest can be made in a home under exigent circumstances if the crime is a misdemeanor or if the offense is a civil traffic offense. The majority cannot assume that the Payton and Laasch rule is automatically applicable to this case. The issue which must be decided, not assumed, is under what circumstances, if any, is a warrantless entry in a home at night to effect an arrest for violation of a civil statute constitutional? Does the government’s interest in enforcing the civil law and collecting a forfeiture ever *354outweigh an individual’s expectation of privacy in his or her home ?
Even if I were to assume that the Payton-Laasch rule is automatically applicable to this civil forfeiture case, I conclude the record is not adequate to find exigent circumstances.
The exigent circumstances doctrine, like all exceptions to the warrant requirement, must be viewed as a narrow exception to the protections of the fourth amendment. In McDonald v. United States, 335 U.S. 451, 456 (1948), the Court said: “We cannot . . . excuse the absence of a search warrant without a showing by those who seek exemption from the constitutional mandate that the exigencies of the situation made that cause imperative.” (Emphasis added.) See also Laasch v. State, quoted supra at page 341 of this dissent.
Although the United States Supreme Court has on several occasions spoken of exigent circumstances, the Court has not clearly defined what are exigent circumstances or established standards to measure the existence of such exigent circumstances. In this case, the circuit court appeared to conclude that the exigency arose out of hot pursuit and the need to preserve evidence of intoxication. The majority, on the other hand, identifies three exigent circumstances, that is, three urgent circumstances that make resort to the warrant process impracticable: (1) the need to prevent the offender’s escape (hot pursuit) ; (2) the need to prevent physical harm to the offender and the public; and (3) the need to prevent the destruction of evidence.
The majority opinion does not establish standards by which the existence of the exigent circumstances are to be tested. For example, the majority does not explain whether the test for a valid warrantless entry under the exigent circumstances doctrine is a subjective one, an objective one, or both. In State v. Prober, 98 Wis. 2d *355345, 365, 297 N.W.2d 1 (1980), the court adopted a two-step analysis (subjective and objective) for application of the emergency doctrine, an exception to the warrant requirement which is similar to the exigent circumstances doctrine. Under Prober, the warrantless search is invalid unless the officer is actually motivated by the perceived emergency, that is, to render aid or assistance (subjective test). Second, “even though the requisite motivation is found to exist,” the warrantless search is invalid unless a “reasonable person under the circumstances would have thought an emergency existed” (objective test).
If the Prober two-step analysis for the emergency doctrine is not applicable to the exigent circumstances doctrine the majority ought to tell us why.
This case cannot meet the Prober subjective test. The officer did not testify that he believed he had to arrest the defendant immediately in order to prevent the defendant from escaping or in order to protect the defendant or the public from the danger of the defendant driving another automobile that night. The officer does refer to the fact that alcohol dissipates with the passage of time. But the officer said that his, subjective motivation was to investigate immediately, to determine if the defendant was drunk. The officer did not testify that he believed he had to arrest the defendant immediately to preserve the evidence. He said he went into the house to determine whether the defendant was drunk and if so he would then attempt to preserve the evidence.
This case also cannot meet the Prober objective test of exigent circumstances.5 The essence of the exigent cir*356cumstances doctrine is the degree of urgency to make the arrest or search created by the exigency and the amount of time it would take to obtain a warrant.
The warrantless entry in this case cannot be justified as necessary to prevent the defendant from escaping arrest or to prevent physical harm to the driver or to the public. The police had the defendant’s name and address. There is nothing in the record to indicate that the police thought he would leave the jurisdiction or would not be available for arrest unless he was pursued and arrested immediately. The majority speculates, without anything in the record supporting this speculation, that the defendant (whose car was in the field and who, as the police officers found out when they knocked on the door, was in *357bed) had to be arrested immediately to prevent him from driving another car. The “threat to safety” exception must be limited to situations where the officer has reasonable factual justification to believe the defendant intends to drive again. Without this limitation, in every case involving probable cause to believe that the person was driving under the influence, the police would be justified in making a warrantless entry into the home to arrest the person.
The threatened destruction or removal of evidence presents a more difficult issue of exigent circumstances. It is beyond question that alcohol “disappears” over a period of time and that the evidence of intoxication will be destroyed by the passage of time. But neither the record nor the majority opinion describes the degree of urgency to make the arrest, that is, how long a time period may elapse before the alcohol has disappeared, and the amount of time it would take to obtain a warrant in the city of Madison at 9:30 at night.
Drugs can be flushed down a toilet in seconds. Money or bloody clothes can be burned within minutes. When we talk about “destruction” of the evidence of intoxication we are .talking about hours.
Sec. 345.24, Stats. 1977, indicates that it may take up to four hours to allow an intoxicant’s blood alcohol content to metabolize to a “safe” level. Sec. 885.235(3), Stats. 1977, states that chemical tests performed within two hours of the event to be proved are given prima facie effect without expert testimony; tests performed more than two hours after the event to be proved are admissible as evidence if expert testimony establishes its probative value and prima facie effect. Thus police can perform the test more than two hours after the event and still have acceptable evidence to present in court. In State v. Bentley, 92 Wis.2d 860, 286 N.W.2d 153 (Ct. App. 1979), a blood sample was taken from the accused *358three and a half hours after the accident, and the results were apparently damaging to the accused’s position. Sec. 885.235(3) was amended in 1982 to provide that samples taken within three hours are given prima facie effect without expert testimony; tests not taken within three hours after the event are admissible only if expert testimony establishes their probative value and prima facie effect. See ch. 20, sec. 1816(c) and (e), ch. 184, sec. 5, Laws of 1981.
In this case the police zeroed in on the identity of the defendant in about one half hour after the event to be proved. It is up to the state to introduce evidence that resort to the warrant process was impracticable because the warrant and any test for intoxication would come too late. Yet the state introduced no such evidence. Nor are there scientific facts or facts relating to the practice in Dane County as to the issuance of warrants of which this court might take judicial notice to justify the conclusion that a reasonable officer might reasonably have believed that he had to preserve the evidence from destruction and had no time to get a warrant. Because the state has not met its burden of showing that its warrant-less entry was “imperative,” I would hold that the circumstances were not exigent.
Accordingly, I would affirm the decision of the court of appeals and remand this case to the circuit court to determine the issue of consent.
To preserve the federal and state constitutional guarantees of the sanctity of the home against the knock on the door in the middle of the night by government officers who do not have a warrant issued by a judicial officer, I dissent.
I am authorized to state that Justice Nathan S. Heffernan joins this dissent.

 Both the defendant and the state initially treated this case as if the defendant was accused of violating a criminal statute and not a civil statute. The court of appeals decision stated that the case involved a misdemeanor yet there is no proof in the record that the defendant was involved in a crime. A first violation of sec. 346.63(1) is a civil forfeiture; a second or subsequent violation within the statutory time period is a crime. Sec. 346.65(2) (a) 1, 2. The state in its briefs referred to the officer’s power to arrest under sec. 968.07(1) (d), Stats. 1979-80, the criminal arrest *343statute. For other arrest provisions see sec. 62.09(13) and ch. 818, Stats. 1979-80.
When the defendant made the point that the offense here is civil, the state agreed that there is no indication that the offense is criminal. The state in its final brief argues that because the defendant did not raise the question of whether the offense here indeed was a crime, that issue has been waived. I conclude that, regardless of the issue of waiver, the validity of sec. 345.22 is an important issue for this case and law enforcement, and we should under our discretionary powers reach it.

 Jablonic’s entire testimony as to what he told the police officer concerning the driver’s condition is as follows:
“Q. What did you tell the officer? Did you give the officer a description of the individual you had been talking to?
“A. I don’t recall that I did at the time. I told him that I felt the man was very inebriated or very sick or not very much in possession of his faculties or ability to perform. And it was my feeling that he had taken off across the field.
“Q. What did you base your opinion on that he was inebriated?
“A. Well, first of all the erratic motion of the car, and then the staggering and slurred speech that he exhibited when he was trying to talk to me.
“Q. You have seen people or persons under the influence of an intoxicant before?
“A. Working at the University, it’s a common — very common to see many inebriated people, unfortunately.”
Jablonic described the driver as follows:
“Q. Did you notice anything about this person?
“A. They had a kind of a wet leather jacket on or something that looked like a reddish-brown jacket, as what I can recall. It was evening. It was raining and wet. It might have been even a sportcoat that was just wet. And they stood by the window of the car, which I rolled down.
“Q. All right, did you have an opportunity to observe the way this person walked ?
“A. It was very unsteady and unsure. And — the person that just wasn’t very well would walk like that.
“Q. And did you — did this person get close enough to you that you could observe his breath?
*349“A. No. They remained outside the vehicle. I did roll down the window. I conversed with the person. But there was no opportunity to smell his breath.”

 Officer Daley testified as to his conversation with Jablonic as follows:
“Q. Do you recall whether or not he [Jablonic] said anything about this individual being under the influence?
“A. Yes, he had a definite opinion about that.
“Q. What did he tell you?
“A. He said the man was very obviously intoxicated.”

 In determining probable cause there is no balance or weighing of the gravity of the public concerns served by the arrest and the severity of the interference with individual liberty. The balance has been made by adopting the requirement of probable cause. As the United States Supreme Court has said, “The requisite ‘balance’ has been performed in centuries of precedent and is embodied in the principle that seizures are ‘reasonable’ only if supported by probable cause.” Dunaway v. New York, 442 U.S. 200, 214 (1979).
The majority at one and the same time appears to negate and to inject a balancing test in determining probable cause. The majority says at supra, p. 329 that “although the State must prove the existence of both probable cause and exigent circumstances, negating any implication of adherence to a mere balancing test, the progeny of Fourth Amendment case law demonstrates that reasonableness occupies a prominent position in search and seizure analysis.” (Emphasis supplied.) The progeny to which the majority refers are Brown v. Texas, 443 U.S. 47, 50-51 (1979), and Bies v. State, 76 Wis. 2d 457, 466, 251 N.W.2d 461 (1976) (quoting Browne v. State, 24 Wis. 2d 491, 507, 129 N.W.2d 175 [1964] cert. denied. 379 U.S. 1004). These cases involve an investigation or a stop which requires something less than probable, cause. An investigation and a stop may be justified even if there *353is no probable cause as long as there is “mere ‘reasonable suspicion.’ ” Dunaway v. New York, 442 U.S. 200, 211 (1979). Reasonableness in the probable cause context revolves around whether the officer has reasonable grounds to believe that the defendant probably committed a crime. Reasonableness in the context of an investigation or stop involves balancing the gravity of the state’s interest and the nature of the invasion of the privacy of the person. The majority’s shifting back and forth between the balancing test justifying an investigation or stop and the concept of probable cause justifying a search or an arrest may very well explain why the majority reaches the conclusion it did in this case that the intrusion in the defendant’s home and his arrest were constitutional.
The court of appeals used a balancing test in this case to determine exigency, not to determine probable cause. See note 5 infra.

 In applying the objective standard, federal and state courts have, according to the commentators, taken one of two approaches in attempting to articulate the facts which bear on the determination of exigent circumstances: the checklist approach articulated in Dorman v. United States, 435 F.2d 385 (D.C. Cir. 1970) (en *356banc) or the totality of the circumstances test. See Harbaugh and Faust, “Knock on Any Door” — Home Arrests after Payton and Steagald, 86 Dick. L. Rev. 191, 224-25 (1982); Donnino and Gi-rese, Exigent Circumstances for a Warrantless Home Arrest, 45 Alb. L. Rev. 90 (1980); 2 LaFave, Search and Seizure, sec. 6.1, pp. 388-95 (1978).
Judge Gartzke, writing for the court of appeals, used a balancing test to determine whether the exigency justified the intrusion. He assumed that this case involved a misdemeanor and concluded that although there was urgency to avoid destruction of evidence, the urgency in this case was not sufficiently great to justify a warrantless arrest in the home. He noted that the “misdemeanor” in this case was not a grave offense. The defendant had not injured any person or property. The defendant’s wife and daughter were in no danger. The defendant was in no danger; he was upstairs in bed. An intrusion by the police into a bedroom at night is a serious intrusion on privacy. Entry into the home is ordinarily afforded the most stringent fourth amendment protection. Judge Gartzke’s approach of looking at the entire case and balancing the government’s need for immediate police action and the defendant’s interest in privacy in the home is interesting and worthy of discussion and consideration. It also seems to satisfy the majority’s keen interest in balancing and reasonableness. Unfortunately the majority ignores the approach of the court of appeals.