Court Opinion

ID: 9562736
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 18:33:14.286702+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:17:30.168815
License: Public Domain

ROVIRA, Justice,
specially concurring:
I disagree with the majority’s conclusion that the dog sniff in this case constituted a search.
As the majority points out, the beginning point in analyzing the constitutionality of the canine sniff is Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 88 S.Ct. 507, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967). Katz established a two-prong analysis for testing the validity of investigative techniques under the fourth amendment. Under Katz, it must first be decided whether the activity was a search; if it was a search, it must then be determined whether the search was reasonable. The facts of this case, in addition to the overwhelming applicable case law, lead me to conclude that the sniff of Unruh’s safe was not a search, and that the police conduct at all times was reasonable.
In determining whether the sniff was a search, it is necessary to decide whether the defendant had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the object of the police investigation. Before answering this question, however, a brief recitation of the facts is necessary. The object of the police investigation in this case was defendant’s safe, initially discovered by the police in the open trunk of a car parked on a public street. The safe had been recently stolen from the defendant’s nearby home. Before removing the safe to the police station for eviden-tiary purposes, the police were informed by one of the suspected burglars of the safe that it contained money and drugs. A search of the defendant’s house revealed drug paraphernalia. The police also learned that the defendant was a suspected cocaine dealer. It is also significant that the defendant did not request the return of the safe after the police took custody of it. Cognizant of these facts, the detectives decided to submit the safe to a dog sniff. The dog’s reaction to the safe indicated that it contained drugs.
The question under Katz, in determining whether the sniff of the safe constituted a search, is whether the defendant exhibited an actual expectation of privacy in the safe and, if so, whether the expectation is one “that society is willing to recognize as ‘reasonable.’ ” Katz, 389 U.S. at 361, 88 S.Ct. at 516 (Harlan, J., concurring). In applying this analysis, it is reasonable to conclude that the defendant did not exhibit an actual expectation of privacy in the safe. This *383conclusion is supported by the fact that “there is no indication in the record that the defendant ever directly requested the return of the safe after the police took custody of it in a lawful manner.” Majority op. at 374. However, conceding that the defendant did exhibit an actual or “subjective” expectation of privacy in the safe, I am convinced that the expectation is not one that society is prepared to recognize as reasonable.
The luggage sniff cases contain helpful reasoning which applies equally well to this case. The leading case involving a dog sniff of luggage is United States v. Place, 462 U.S. 696,103 S.Ct. 2637, 77 L.Ed.2d 110 (1983). In Place, the defendant was a suspected drug courier who had his luggage detained for 90 minutes by members of the Drug Enforcement Administration. During this time, the D.E.A. agents transported the luggage to another location to be examined by a detector dog. The sniff indicated drugs, and the defendant was subsequently convicted of possession of narcotics. On review, the Supreme Court, while holding that the seizure of defendant’s luggage was unreasonable under the fourth amendment due to the duration of its detention, also held that the sniff of the luggage was not a search. Id. at 707, 103 S.Ct. at 2644.
The majority quotes at length from Place and correctly identifies “the peculiarly nonintrusive and discriminating nature of an investigatory dog sniff,” as the underlying rationale for holding a sniff not to be a search. Majority op. at 375-376. Yet, the majority reasons that the defendant “could have [had] no expectation that the privacy provided by a locked safe in his basement would be subject to a governmental investigative technique of any sort.” Majority op. at 378. The locked safe, however, was not in the defendant’s basement at the time of the dog sniff — it was at the police station. The defendant did not demand the return of the safe, nor did he object to the safe being in the temporary custody of the police. Hence, I believe that the rationale of Place applies with equal force to the facts of this case and, accordingly, that the majority errs in concluding that the sniff was a search.
In support of its holding that the sniff was a search, the majority cites the “small minority” of cases holding that a dog sniff of an object constitutes a search. See majority op. at 376 n. 9. However, all but one of these cases were decided prior to Place, which was decided in 1983. This “small minority” of courts is actually smaller than the majority opinion suggests. First, United States v. Beale, 674 F.2d 1327 (9th Cir.1982), vacated and remanded, 463 U.S. 1202, 103 S.Ct. 3529, 77 L.Ed.2d 1382 (1983), rev’d on rehearing, 736 F.2d 1289 (1984), cert, denied, — U.S. -, 105 S.Ct. 565, 83 L.Ed.2d 506, provides no support at all for the proposition that a sniff of an object is a search. In Beale, the Ninth Circuit originally held that a sniff of luggage constituted a limited fourth amendment intrusion, but that decision was vacated by the Supreme Court in light of Place. On remand, the Ninth Circuit held that the canine sniff was not a search under the fourth amendment. Similarly, United States v. Solis, 393 F.Supp. 325 (C.D.Cal.1975), rev’d, 536 F.2d 880 (9th Cir.1976), provides no support for the majority’s conclusion because the district court decision was reversed by the court of appeals, which held that a dog sniff of a trailer suspected of containing marijuana was not a search.
People v. Evans, 65 Cal.App.3d 924, 134 Cal.Rptr. 436 (1977), is also of dubious value. Evans is factually distinguishable on the ground that the dog sniff apparently was conducted as part of a general, exploratory search. There, the court stated:
It does affirmatively appear that the dogs were used to sniff around all of the [storage] compartments and that their use so far as the record is concerned appears to have been a seeking out and exploratory in nature. A review of the cases supports the conclusion that such a search with canines conducted without some preknowledge or reasonably strong suspicion that contraband is to be found in a particular location is a constitutionally impermissible invasion of the suspects’ reasonable expectations of privacy and *384consequently a violation of the Fourth Amendment.
Evans, 134 Cal.Rptr. at 441. In the instant case, however, the police did have a reasonable suspicion or some preknowledge of the safe’s contents: the burglary suspect told the police the safe contained drugs, cocaine paraphernalia was found in the defendant’s house, and police files indicated that defendant was a suspected drug dealer.
Pooley v. State, 705 P.2d 1293 (Alaska App.1985), is the only state court since Place to hold that a sniff of luggage constitutes a search. However, the sniff in Poo-ley was held to be a minimally intrusive search under the Alaska Constitution. The Alaska court did not hold that the sniff constituted a search under the fourth amendment of the United States Constitution. Id. at 1311.
The cases cited by the majority involving the use of trained dogs to sniff students have no bearing on this case whatsoever. Here, the dogs sniffed a safe, not a person.
In effect, the majority cites only one case which still stands for the proposition that a sniff of an object constitutes a fourth amendment search, State v. Elkins, 47 Ohio App.2d 307, 354 N.E.2d 716 (1976). This single state appellate court decision, decided prior to Place, hardly provides a sound basis for holding a sniff of an object to be a search. The persuasiveness of the majority's conclusion is further diminished in light of the cases which, since Place, have decided whether a sniff of an object is a search. Since Place, federal and state courts have unanimously agreed that a dog sniff of an inanimate object found in a public place does not constitute a search under the fourth amendment. See, e.g., United States v. Dicesare, 765 F.2d 890, 897 (9th Cir.1985) (canine’s sniff of car trunk was not a “search” requiring probable cause), amended by Til F.2d 543; People v. Salih, 173 Cal.App.3d 1009, 219 Cal. Rptr. 603, 606 (1985) (“It is now settled that exposing personal property to the sniff of a trained narcotics detecting dog is not a ‘search’ for Fourth Amendment purposes.”); State v. Snitkin, 681 P.2d 980, 983 (Hawaii 1984) (detection dog’s sniff of a package was not a fourth amendment search); Strout v. State, 688 S.W.2d 188, 191 (Tex.Crim.App.1985) (dog’s sniffing in the aisle in front of defendant’s safety deposit boxes was not a fourth amendment search because defendant did not have a legitimate expectation of privacy in the aisle in front of his boxes).
The facts of the instant case and the majority’s analysis present no convincing reason to depart from the rule established in Place and consistently followed by other courts. Accordingly, I respectfully dissent from that portion of part III of the majority opinion that holds the sniff to be a search.
I am authorized to say that Justice ERICKSON joins me in this special concurrence.