Court Opinion

ID: 9565470
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:21:48.478259+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:19:39.847025
License: Public Domain

ROVIRA, Justice,
dissenting:
I dissent. The issue to be resolved in this case is whether the police officer, acting on the information that there was an outstanding arrest warrant for Mitchell, had probable cause to arrest him on December 18, 1982. The validity of the search incident to Mitchell’s arrest, which uncovered the vial of cocaine, depends upon how we choose to resolve the issue of probable cause. The People argue that even though the warrant proved to be invalid, that fact does not mandate the suppression of the evidence obtained as a result of Mitchell’s arrest. They claim that the arresting officer, upon learning of the outstanding warrant, was under a duty to effect Mitchell’s arrest, see section 13—10—111(2), C.R.S.1973,1 and that his actions were in complete accord with what the law would have allowed, had the warrant been correct. Mitchell argues, on the other hand, that absent a valid warrant, there was no probable cause for the officer to arrest him. The district court agreed with Mitchell and ordered the suppression of the cocaine. The majority now upholds the suppression, citing Whiteley v. Warden, 401 U.S. 560, 91 S.Ct. 1031, 28 L.Ed.2d 306 (1971), as the controlling precedent. Under the circumstances, however, a different result is warranted. In my opinion, the police officer had probable cause to arrest Mitchell, and, as a result, the search was valid.
I.
Probable cause to arrest exists when the facts and circumstances known to the arresting officer are sufficient to warrant the belief by a reasonable and prudent person, in light of that person’s training and expe*997rience, that an offense has been committed and the defendant committed it. People v. Roybal, 655 P.2d 410 (Colo.1982); People v. Vigil, 198 Colo. 185, 597 P.2d 567 (1979); People v. Gonzales, 186 Colo. 48, 525 P.2d 1139 (1974); section 16-3-102, C.R.S.1973 (1978 Repl.Vol. 8). Probable cause may be based on the personal observations of the arresting officer, on facts provided to him by fellow officers or others, or on a combination of these categories of information. People v. Chavez, 632 P.2d 574 (Colo. 1981); People v. Saars, 196 Colo. 294, 584 P.2d 622 (1978). In evaluating probable cause, we have often stated that probability, not certainty, is the touchstone of reasonableness under the fourth amendment and that probable cause involves probabilities similar to the factual and practical questions of everyday life upon which reasonable and prudent persons act. Roybal, 655 P.2d 410 (Colo.1982); People v. Baird, 172 Colo. 112, 470 P.2d 20 (1970). See Hill v. California, 401 U.S. 797, 91 S.Ct. 1106, 28 L.Ed.2d 484 (1971).
In this case, the existence of an outstanding arrest warrant provided a prima facie showing of probable cause, and the police officer was entitled to rely on such a warrant in making the arrest. In People v. Gouker, 665 P.2d 113 (Colo. 1983), the defendant was arrested on the basis of an outstanding California arrest warrant. He produced a bond receipt and argued that his arrest was not based on probable cause and was improper. We held that police officers are not required to establish conclusively the legitimacy of an outstanding arrest warrant at the time of the arrest. Even if the defendant decides to protest the validity of the warrant, the officer in the field is entitled to make the arrest, since "[a]n arrest pursuant to a facially valid warrant satisfies the prosecution’s burden of proving that probable cause to arrest exists.” Id. at 117. See People v. Coto, 199 Colo. 508, 611 P.2d 969 (1980).
The majority relies on Whiteley v. Warden, 401 U.S. 560, 91 S.Ct. 1031, 28 L.Ed.2d 306 (1971), to support its position that the police lacked ' probable cause to arrest Mitchell. In Whiteley, the defendant was arrested by an officer who relied on a police radio bulletin which stated that a warrant existed for the defendant’s arrest. After finding that the warrant was deficient because it was not supported by a proper affidavit, the Supreme Court rejected the state’s argument that the arresting officer’s reliance on the bulletin furnished probable cause and thus legalized the arrest:
“We do not, of course, question that the ... police were entitled to act on the strength of the radio bulletin. Certainly police officers called upon to aid other officers in executing arrest warrants are entitled to assume that the officers requesting aid offered the magistrate the information requisite to support an independent judicial assessment of probable cause. Where, however, the contrary turns out to be true, an otherwise illegal arrest cannot be insulated from challenge by the decision of the instigating officer to rely on fellow officers to make the arrest.”
Id. at 568, 91 S.Ct. at 1037.
A week after the Supreme Court decided Whiteley, it also decided Hill v. California, 401 U.S. 797, 91 S.Ct. 1106, 28 L.Ed.2d 484 (1971). The People rely on Hill to support their argument that the presumably valid warrant provided probable cause to arrest Mitchell. In Hill, the police concluded that they had probable cause to arrest Hill for robbery. They went to his apartment and were met by a man named Miller who looked like Hill. They arrested Miller, thinking he was Hill, and searched the apartment. Weapons and proceeds of the robbery were found. Hill claimed that the search was based on the invalid arrest of Miller and that the evidence should be inadmissible. The Supreme Court disagreed, noting that “[t]he police unquestionably had probable cause to arrest Hill.” It continued:
“[W]e find no reason to disturb ... the conclusion that ‘[wjhen the police have probable cause to arrest one party, and when they reasonably mistake a second party for the first party, then the arrest *998of the second party is a valid arrest.... [Here,] the officers in good faith believed Miller was Hill and arrested him. They were quite wrong as it turned out, and subjective good-faith belief would not in itself justify either the arrest or the subsequent search. But sufficient probability, not certainty, is the touchstone of reasonableness under the Fourth Amendment and on the record before us the officers’ mistake was understandable and the arrest a reasonable response to the situation facing them at the time.
“Nor can we agree ... that however valid the arrest of Miller, the subsequent search violated the Fourth Amendment. ... [Under the] circumstances the police were entitled to do what the law would have allowed them to do if Miller had in fact been Hill, that is, to search incident to arrest and to seize evidence of the crime the police had probable cause to believe Hill had committed. When judged in accordance with ‘the factual and practical considerations of everyday life on which reasonable and prudent men, not legal technicians, act,’ ... the arrest and subsequent search were reasonable and valid under the Fourth Amendment.”
Id. at 802-05, 91 S.Ct. at 1110-11.
After analyzing the conduct of the police officer in this case, I would apply the Hill rationale and uphold the arrest of December 18, 1982. The officer’s reliance on the information given to him by the dispatcher provided probable cause to arrest Mitchell. Even though the arrest was based on incorrect information, the officer did not know, and could not reasonably be expected to know, that a mistake had been made and that the outstanding warrant should have been removed from the files. This error of omission and the officer’s reasonable reliance on the warrant present a combination of circumstances which does not justify strict application of the exclusionary rule. The rule is intended primarily to deter unlawful or improper police conduct. As the Supreme Court explained in United States v. Calandra, 414 U.S. 338, 347-48, 94 S.Ct. 613, 619-20, 38 L.Ed.2d 561 (1974):
“The purpose of the exclusionary rule is not to redress the injury to the privacy of the search victim .... Instead, the rule’s prime purpose is to deter future unlawful police conduct and thereby effectuate the guarantee of the Fourth Amendment against unreasonable searches and seizures: ‘The rule is calculated to prevent, not to repair. Its purpose is to deter — to compel respect for the constitutional guaranty in the only effectively available way — by removing the incentive to disregard it.’ Elkins v. United States, 364 U.S. 206, 217 (1960) .... In sum, the rule is a judicially created remedy designed to safeguard Fourth Amendment rights generally through its deterrent effect, rather than a personal constitutional right of the party aggrieved.” (emphasis added).
Application of the exclusionary rule in this case serves little purpose, given the announced justification for the rule, since the police officer who arrested Mitchell did nothing unlawful or improper. He made a valid stop, followed standard police procedure, and carried out the mandate in section 13-10-111(2) by executing an outstanding arrest warrant. His actions in no way resemble the type of blatant misconduct which prompted adoption of the rule in the first place. I am satisfied that the cost of applying the rule in a case such as this would outweigh any deterrent effect it might achieve. See United States v. Havens, 446 U.S. 620, 100 S.Ct. 1912, 64 L.Ed.2d 559 (1980); United States v. Ceccolini, 435 U.S. 268, 98 S.Ct. 1054, 55 L.Ed.2d 268 (1978). In the future, the majority opinion will only serve “to deter [police officers] from acting at all.” United States v. Williams, 622 F.2d 830, 842 (5th Cir.1980), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 1127, 101 S.Ct. 946, 67 L.Ed.2d 114 (1981).
II.
Courts in other jurisdictions have faced similar fact patterns and, despite Whiteley, have decided that the police had probable cause to arrest the defendant. In most *999instances, the “mistake” in question has been a failure to remove an outstanding warrant or police report from police records, but the same analysis has been applied to mistakes occurring before a warrant or report has been issued.2 In Oregon v. Somfleth, 8 Or.App. 171, 492 P.2d 808 (1972), police officers approached an automobile and asked the defendant for identification. They then radioed the dispatcher and requested a records check. The dispatcher informed them that the defendant was wanted under the Armed Forces Act for being absent without leave from the United States Marine Corps. At the officers’ request, the dispatcher verified this information with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and with military authorities. Despite protestations by the defendant that he was properly on leave, he was arrested and searched. The officers discovered capsules containing a controlled substance in the defendant’s pockets. Later, at the police station, “it was confirmed that, contrary to the information received earlier, defendant was not absent without leave.” Id. at 175, 492 P.2d at 810.
The issue before the Oregon Court of Appeals was whether the police had probable cause to arrest and search the defendant. The court concluded that they did:
“The reliance placed by [the] officers upon the confirmed reports from police headquarters was proper for they could not reasonably be expected to disregard the officially verified information.... That subsequent information showed defendant not to have been AWOL or a deserter does not detract from the lawfulness of the initial arrest and search and seizure pursuant thereto. Under the circumstances of this case, the police were entitled to do what the law authorized them to do if defendant had, in fact, been a deserter; that is, to make a reasonable search incident to a lawful arrest. See Hill v. California, 401 U.S. 797, 91 S.Ct. 1106, 28 L.Ed.2d 484 (1971).”
Id. at 177, 492 P.2d at 811.
Similarly, in New Jersey v. Cross, 164 N.J.Super. 368, 396 A.2d 604 (1978), a police officer stopped the defendants' automobile for speeding. He radioed for an investigative check on the vehicle’s registration and learned that the automobile was listed as stolen by the local police department. A second radio message informed him that the local police department had confirmed his initial inquiry. Despite protestations that the automobile was not stolen, the defendants were arrested. A search for further identification led to the discovery of capsules containing a controlled substance in the glove compartment. Later, at the police station, the officer learned that the automobile, which had been stolen, had also been recovered and returned to one of the defendants. The local police had simply “forgot[ten] to cancel their teletype in the N.C.I.C. computer.” Id. at 371, 396 A.2d at 605.
The issue before the New Jersey Superi- or Court was identical to that facing the Oregon court in Somfleth. The response was also the same. The court explained:
“Probable cause and the reasonableness of the search must be tested by the nature of the information available to the officers at the time; and certainly there was sufficient reliable information, and not mere suspicion at that time, that the car'was stolen. We are of the view that the fact that it was later proved to be false information because of administrative errors of others cannot affect the validity of the officers’ actions at the crucial time involved.... Just as a search can not be validated by subsequently acquired information, conversely, it can not be invalidated by such subsequent events.”
*1000Id. at 374, 396 A.2d at 606-07. See also Childress v. United States, 381 A.2d 614 (D.C.1977) (police officers’ reliance on radio report and resultant reasonable belief that valid traffic warrants were outstanding provided probable cause to arrest the defendant); Patterson v. United States, 301 A.2d 67 (D.C.1973) (room must be allowed for some mistakes by police officers, so long as the mistakes are of reasonable persons, acting on facts leading sensibly to their conclusions of probability); People v. Lent, 105 Misc.2d 831, 433 N.Y.S.2d 538 (1980) (police had probable cause to arrest and search the defendant; mere fact that unknown to them the warrant had been vacated does not alter both a right and duty to arrest the defendant); Commonwealth v. Riley, 284 Pa.Super. 280, 425 A.2d 813 (1981) (court in hindsight will not invalidate an arrest and search when the arresting officer reasonably relied upon information which he had no reason to believe was incorrect).
Either explicitly or implicitly, these cases adopt the Hill, rather than the Whiteley, rationale. They also reflect a different attitude about the exclusionary rule than that evidenced by the majority opinion. Instead of applying the rule in a per se fashion, these cases- focus on the type of mistake and on the deterrent value of applying the rule in individual situations. Using this approach, I am satisfied that the police officer in this case had probable cause to arrest the defendant and that the search incident to that arrest was also valid.3 Accordingly, I would reverse the order of the district court.

. This statute provides in part: "Processes from any municipal court shall be executed by any authorized law enforcement officer from the municipality in which the court is located.”

. The record in this case is not precise as to when the outstanding arrest warrant was issued. The majority assumes that Mitchell "actually paid the traffic fine prior to the issuance of the warrant,” but the record does not disclose the date the fine was paid or the date the warrant was issued. In any event, I conclude that the analysis in this section is applicable regardless of when the warrant was issued.

. Because this conclusion is, in my opinion, correct, I choose not to address the issue discussed by the majority in section III of its opinion, namely, the application of section 16-3-308, C.R.S. 1973 (1983 Supp.), to the facts of this case.