Court Opinion

ID: 9884899
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-06 03:22:52.225537+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:41:06.240790
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Underwood, dissenting : While the search and seizure area is not one in which clearly delineated boundaries can always be drawn, the opinion of my colleagues that constitutional standards of reasonableness are offended by the search in this case is one which I cannot share. To me the majority opinion is not in harmony with the tenor of our recent decisions (People v. Davis, 33 Ill.2d 134, and cases there cited), and is irreconcilable with People v. Jeffries, 31 Ill.2d 597. The opinion of the court states “The present search, however, was pursuant to an arrest solely for a traffic violation and could not be reasonably required to discover the fruits of the crime.” The evidence in my judgment does not warrant this conclusion. It is undisputed that the officers’ attention was first drawn to the defendant’s car when it failed to stop for a red light, and that a traffic summons was later given defendant at the police station. But to conclude therefrom that this was the sole reason for the arrest ignores the equally undisputed fact that the officers, upon seeing defendant’s car, recognized it as one described in the daily police bulletin which also described and listed defendant as wanted for burglary. The defendant, himself, testified that when he first asked the officers what was wrong they told him he was “wanted for attempted burglary”. As recently as last September we said in People v. Davis, 33 Ill.2d 134; “In People v. Thomas, 31 Ill.2d 212, we set forth the principle that if circumstances reasonably indicate that the police may be dealing not with the ordinary traffic violator, but with a criminal, then a search of the driver and his vehicle is authorized in order to insure the safety of the police officers and to prevent an escape”. An additional basis for such research, recognized in the majority opinion and more apposite here, is the recovery of the fruits or implements used to commit the crime. The majority opinion does not distinguish between the interior of the car and the trunk of the car, insofar as the extent of the search is concerned nor would I under the circumstances here since no force was used to gain access to the trunk. It is impossible for me to reconcile the holding here with People v. Jeffries, 31 Ill.2d 597. There are but minor factual differences between it and the case at bar. In Jeffries, the arresting officers personally knew a warrant for Jeffries’ arrest on a burglary charge had been issued although it was not in their possession. Here it is unclear as to whether a warrant had issued, some testimony indicating it had and was so indicated on the police bulletin which the officers had. In any event, the officers knew, prior to arresting defendant or searching the car, that he and the vehicle searched were “wanted” in connection with a burglary or attempted burglary. The reasonableness of a search must be determined by “the factual and practical considerations of everyday life upon which reasonable and prudent men, not legal technicians, act.” (Brinegar v. United States, 338 U.S. 169, 175, 93 L. Ed. 1879; People v. LaBostrie, 14 Ill.2d 617.) The search here appears to me indistinguishable from that in Jeffries. In both cases the arrests were legal; in both the police had reasonable grounds to believe the defendant had been engaged in a felony; both searches were contemporaneous with the arrests; and neither involved a general searching expedition to establish illegal conduct, but were directed to items connected with a crime. In my judgment the conduct of the officers was reasonable under the circumstances and constitutionally permissible. I would therefore affirm the conviction. Mr. Justice House joins in this dissent.