Court Opinion

ID: 9631448
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 10:38:27.569227+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:07:54.328182
License: Public Domain

CONCURRING STATEMENT BY
TODD, J.:
¶ 1 I join the majority opinion because, under the Tarbert-Blouse guidelines, I agree the Commonwealth failed to demonstrate that the decisions regarding which vehicles to stop were “in accordance with objective standards prefixed by administrative decision” and not left to the “unfettered discretion” of the police officers at the scene. Commonwealth v. Blouse, 531 Pa. 167, 172, 611 A.2d 1177, 1180 (1992) (quoting Commonwealth v. Tarbert, 517 Pa. 277, 293, 535 A.2d 1035, 1043 (1987) (plurality)). I do so reluctantly, however, because I observe that there is no suggestion in the record that the officer in this case, in periodically alleviating traffic congestion by temporarily suspending the checkpoint, was doing anything other than attempting to fulfill his duty to ensure that traffic flow was managed as safely and as efficiently as possible.
¶ 2 Nevertheless, the Tarbert-Blouse guidelines are in place because a constitutional right is at stake. The guidelines exist not because we presume police officers are incapable of properly exercising discretion at checkpoints such at the one at issue in this case, but because the limited exception to the constitutional requirement of probable cause to effect a seizure, permitted by Tarbert and Blouse, is so extraordinary that it may be allowed only under the most exacting standards. The guidelines “achieve the goal of assuring that an individual’s reasonable expectation of privacy is not subject to arbitrary invasions solely at the unfettered discretion of officers in the field.” Blouse, 531 Pa. at 173, 611 A.2d at 1180. Thus, the question of which vehicles to stop — which question necessarily includes the issue of when to temporarily suspend stopping vehicles for whatever reason — must conform to prefixed, objective standards. Because I agree those standards were not met in this case, I join the majority.