Court Opinion

ID: 9705976
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 01:28:41.3595+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:18.156844
License: Public Domain

MONTEMURO, Judge,
concurring:
Following a careful consideration of the present case, I find that while I agree with the majority that appellant’s judgment of sentence should stand, I must write separately to set forth my views.
Pursuant to our Rules of Criminal Procedure, a police officer is provided with a choice as to the means of instituting proceedings where a case involves the alleged violation of a summary criminal offense. Pa.R.Crim.P. 51. One of these choices is “arrest without a warrant when arrest is specifically authorized by law.” Id. In the present case, this was the course of conduct undertaken by Officer Brice. The trial court, in denying appellant's motion to suppress, found, as a factual matter, that the arrest of the appellant, and subsequent transport to the police department, “was done in order that some form of positive identification could be made of the defendant.” R.R. at 68a. I agree that under the circumstances of this particular case, Officer Brice exercised sound discretion in arresting the appellant. His conduct is authorized by Pa.R.Crim.P. 51, and it did not result in a violation of appellant’s right to be secure from unreasonable searches and seizures.
*508My concern with the majority’s decision centers upon the treatment of the explanatory comment to Pa.R.Crim.P. 70. In Commonwealth v. Costello, 301 Pa.Super. 537, 448 A.2d 38 (1982), this Court opined:
Although the committee’s comments are not binding on us, they may be considered as effective aids when interpreting the meaning of the rules and amendments thereto. Commonwealth v. Byrd, 250 Pa.Super. 250, 378 A.2d 921 (1977). Additionally, Pa.R.Cr.P. 2 states that the rules shall be construed “as nearly as may be in consonance with the rules of statutory construction.” Those rules authorize us to consider the report of the committee that drafted the amendment. 1 Pa.C.S.A. § 1939.
Id., 301 Pa.Superior Ct. at 540-541, 448 A.2d at 40 (footnote omitted). In addition to the explanatory comment to Pa.R. Crim.P. 70, which explicitly favors institution of summary proceedings through the issuance of a citation as opposed to arrest, the following appears in the committee’s introduction to Chapter 50 of our Rules of Criminal Procedure:
The procedures set out in the following rules governing summary cases (as defined in Rule 3) recognize the importance of prompt notice that a summary offense is being alleged, while also taking account of the minor nature of summary offenses. Although the law recognizes the possibility of an arrest in some summary cases, it is intended under these rules that a citation will be issued to the defendant except in exceptional circumstances (such as those involving violence, or the imminent threat of violence or those involving a danger that the defendant will flee.)
Recent experience with citation procedures indicates that most defendants will obey summary process in summary cases. The rule procedures here, therefore, are generally designed to favor the least intrusive means of instituting a summary proceeding. The general scheme laid out in these rules is that normally summary cases will be instituted not by arrest, but by a law enforcement *509officer ... handing a citation to the defendant at the time the offense is committed.
Even though I agree that the arrest effected by Officer Brice in the case at bar was authorized both by our Rules of Criminal Procedure and by constitutional law, I believe our Supreme Court’s intent with reference to the use of arrests in summary cases must be clearly set forth and emphasized. In most summary cases, due to the minor nature of these criminal offenses, public policy favors the issuance of a citation to the defendant who, upon receiving the citation, will be free to go. In most cases, arresting the defendant, thus restraining his personal freedom, is not necessary in order to assure that the defendant will obey summary process in summary cases. Encouraging the use of the least intrusive means of instituting summary proceedings will surely benefit the citizens of this Commonwealth as law enforcement officers who can effectively handle an incident involving a summary offense in a prompt manner will then be available to respond to calls concerning more serious criminal incidents.
Based upon all of the foregoing reasons, I concur.