Court Opinion

ID: 9763178
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 02:38:15.01986+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:39.834883
License: Public Domain

DORSEY, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent to the majority’s conclusion that the checkpoint was proper. I perceive the issue to be whether officers acting without supervisory approval or control may create a roadblock stopping all traffic to inspect driver’s licenses, insurance, vehicle registration, and equipment. The determinative question is whether individual law enforcement officers have such unbridled discretion without reasonable suspicion or probable cause that a crime has been or will be committed.
Vehicle stops at checkpoints constitute seizures within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution. Michigan Dept, of State Police v. Sitz, — U.S. -, 110 S.Ct. 2481, 2485, 110 L.Ed.2d 412 (1990). Article I, Section 9, of the Texas Constitution and the Fourth Amendment of the Federal Constitution are the same in all material aspects. Brown v. State, 657 S.W.2d 797, 799 (Tex.Crim.App.1983); see also Gearing v. State, 685 S.W.2d 326, 329 (Tex.Crim.App.1985). Thus, an analysis of the stop under Fourth Amendment principles is dispositive. For that analysis, the fundamental guides are decisions of the United States Supreme Court in similar checkpoint or vehicle stop cases.
The Fourth Amendment protects the rights of citizens to be secure from unreasonable searches and seizures. The reasonableness of seizures that are less intrusive than an arrest depends on a balance between the public interest and the individual’s right to personal security free from arbitrary interference by law enforcement officers. Brown v. Texas, 443 U.S. 47, 50, 99 S.Ct. 2637, 2640, 61 L.Ed.2d 357 (1979). Also to be considered is the degree to which the seizure advances the public interest. Brown, 443 U.S. at 51, 99 S.Ct. at 2640.
In Delaware v. Prouse, 440 U.S. 648, 99 S.Ct. 1391, 59 L.Ed.2d 660 (1979), the Court struck down a random stop by a patrolman to cheek driver’s licenses, registrations, and equipment. Prouse, 440 U.S. at 648, 99 S.Ct. at 1391. The patrolman was directed by policy to stop any vehicles he chose during those periods he was not per*300forming other duties. The stops were to be completely random and left to the discretion of the patrolman. The justification by Delaware for the stops was to insure that only licensed drivers in properly registered and equipped vehicles were on the highways. In weighing the reasonableness of those aims with the seizing of drivers, much of what the court said in disapproving the stop in Prouse is applicable here:
In terms of actually discovering unlicensed drivers or deterring them from driving, the spot check does not appear sufficiently productive to qualify as a reasonable law enforcement practice under the Fourth Amendment. Id. It does not appear, therefore, that a stop of a Delaware-registered vehicle is necessary in order to ascertain compliance with the State’s registration requirements. Id.
The Court concluded that “the marginal contribution to roadway safety possibly resulting from a system of spot checks cannot justify subjecting every occupant of every vehicle on the roads to a seizure— limited in magnitude compared to other intrusions but nonetheless constitutionally cognizable — at the unbridled discretion of law enforcement officials.” Prouse, 440 U.S. at 659-661, 99 S.Ct. at 1399-1400. In Prouse, then, the State’s interest in keeping unlicensed drivers and faulty or unregistered vehicles off the road did not justify enabling an officer to stop whatever vehicle he chose without reasonable suspicion or probable cause.
The United States Supreme Court recently upheld the use of a roadblock to locate and identify drunken drivers. Sitz, 110 S.Ct. at 2481. The State of Michigan, acting through its state police at the highest levels, determined that a roadblock would be an effective tool to reduce the carnage caused by drunken drivers. The decision to use a roadblock to accomplish those salutary aims, its location and time of operation, and personnel and equipment involved was determined by accountable supervisory officials. The balancing of the potential effectiveness of a roadblock, the public interest to be served with the intrusiveness of the stop was done at the highest levels of the department. The Supreme Court approved the use of the roadblock finding it was less intrusive than being stopped by an individual patrolman with overhead lights flashing and the decision to employ a roadblock as well as the details of its operation were determined by politically responsible officials, who are positioned to balance the intrusiveness of the seizure against the benefits to be achieved.
As Chief Justice Burger wrote for the majority in Brown: “The central question in balancing these competing considerations [gravity of public concern, degree seizure advances the public interest, and the severity of the interference with individual liberty] in a variety of settings has been to assure that an individual’s reasonable expectation of privacy is not subject to arbitrary invasions solely at the unfettered discretion of officers in the field.” Brown, 443 U.S. at 51, 99 S.Ct. at 2640.
The majority here argues that the officers who established the roadblock and stopped Sanchez were acting according to departmental policy, and thus their activities are analogous to the roadblock in Sitz being authorized at the highest levels of the state police. I strongly disagree. In Sitz, politically accountable officials balanced the harm of the intrusiveness of the seizure with the goals of ridding the road of drunk drivers. Here the guidelines that governed the officers, conduct were that they needed no approval from the department if six or less officers operated a roadblock. There is no evidence of department policy governing the establishment of checkpoints or roadblocks; the only evidence is that no supervisory approval was necessary if the number of officers involved was minimal. This places all decisions regarding the wisdom of the roadblock and the balancing of individual liberty against the goals of public safety solely “at the unfettered discretion of the officers in the field,” as long as the officers involved numbered less than six. Even though the intrusion into personal liberty is small in this situation, it remains a “seizure” of a person under Fourth Amendment teachings. The reasonableness of the seizure of all motorists who happen to be *301where the roadblock is created should not be determined solely by the officers conducting the roadblock.
I would hold the trial judge ruled correctly in finding the roadblock illegal and suppressing the evidence seized there. I respectfully dissent.