Court Opinion

ID: 9843732
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 02:42:35.31805+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:16:53.703749
License: Public Domain

KAPSNER, Justice,
concurring.
[¶ 22] I concur with the majority opinion which concludes the NCIC report and Deputy Schuh’s personal observations created a reasonable and articulable suspicion to justify an investigatory stop. Under the line of cases permitting pat-down searches of individuals for officer safety and the right to search a vehicle incident to the driver’s arrest, I am compelled to concur in the result. I write separately to note the NCIC database which, in part, justified the investigatory stop in this case is limited to include certain persons who are reported missing under specified circumstances. The investigation concerning the NCIC missing person report is to be only as intrusive as necessary to accomplish its purpose. Otherwise we risk the possibility that any NCIC missing person report could be used as a pretext to investigate and search for evidence of other crimes.
[¶ 23] The NCIC database is authorized by 28 U.S.C. § 534. This section directs the Attorney General or officials appointed by the Attorney General to “acquire, collect, classify, and preserve any information which would assist in the location of any missing person ... and provide confirmation as to any entry for such a person to the parent, legal guardian, or next of kin of that person[.]”
[¶ 24] Not every person reported as missing is to be included in the NCIC database. The NCIC has set forth specific criteria for each category of individuals covered in the database, which must be met before an individual is listed in the database. The criteria, relevant to this *400case, for listing a person in the database as “missing” require a person to be missing under circumstances indicating “the disappearance was not voluntary” or the “person’s physical safety may be in danger.” Privacy Act of 1974; Modified System of Records, 60 Fed.Reg. 19774, 19775 (April 20,1995).
[¶ 25] Deputy Schuh was entitled to rely on the NCIC report indicating Boyd may be “possibly missing and/or endangered.” See State v. Grimes, 982 P.2d 1037, 1039-40 (Mont.1999) (concluding the NCIC report indicating the registered owner of the vehicle was “missing, and possibly endangered” could serve as the basis for a particularized suspicion to stop the vehicle). The scope of the investigatory stop, however, is limited to a standard of reasonableness which “balances the nature and quality of the intrusion on personal security against the importance of the governmental interests alleged to justify the intrusion.” United States v. Hensley, 469 U.S. 221, 228, 105 S.Ct. 675, 83 L.Ed.2d 604 (1985).
[¶ 26] Under the specific circumstances of this case, I concur with the majority opinion that under an objective standard Deputy Schuh acted reasonably in detaining the occupants of the car to ascertain whether there was a “missing and/or endangered” female. Subsequent events justified the further searches conducted by the officers.
[¶ 27] Carol Ronning Kapsner