Court Opinion

ID: 9710681
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 04:15:15.822068+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:58.964547
License: Public Domain

BROSKY, Judge,
dissenting.
The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution protects the citizens of the United States from unreasonable searches and seizures. By implication then, citizens are not free from government intrusion of all kinds, merely, unreasonable intrusion. If there were Paradise on earth, a kind of Nirvana, there would be no government intrusion of any kind. Indeed, in such a world there may not be a need for government at all. On the earth we know governments exist to provide for the people of the land. Laws exist in an effort to provide order and prevent chaos and to protect the innocent from those who would do evil. Thus, there is a need for law enforcement authorities and law enforcement activities.
*1228In constitutional law regarding search and seizure, unreasonableness is often closely tied to intrusiveness. The more intrusive the action of law enforcement agents the more unreasonable the action is deemed to be. Of course, intrusive action by law enforcement is not illegal if preceded by the issuance of a warrant ensuring the justification of the action. Since in the present case the police did not secure a warrant prior to conducting the heat radiation testing the fundamental question before us is whether or not such testing is intrusive enough to require the issuance of a warrant before being conducted. In my opinion it is not.
Technological advances are creating difficult questions regarding surveillance of criminal suspects. Electronic eavesdropping is possible and now, particularly if some of Hollywood’s movie offerings are representative, it is possible to “see” through walls in various ways to determine what a building’s occupants are doing inside. Nevertheless, in my opinion, the conducting of the thermal detection test in the present case did not constitute a significant intrusion of appellant’s privacy. The test was conducted from outside the residence, it did not disturb appellant’s peace in any way and it revealed only minimal and generalized information which, by itself, was not of a sensitive nature. In my opinion the minimal invasion the test constitutes is outweighed by the public interest in effective law enforcement.
The majority provides an extensive analysis of fourth amendment law in an effort to persuade readers that the conducting of the thermal detection tests violated the fourth amendment. However, no cases in this Commonwealth have held so as yet.' Thus, the initial determination of this isstie lies with this panel. On one end of the fourth amendment spectrum entries into homes or wiretapping cannot be conducted without the issuance of a warrant. On the other end of the spectrum, a “flyover” of someone’s property to observe what is going on below or the usage of trained dogs to sniff for drugs outside a rental space has passed constitutional scrutiny.1 In my opinion, the intrusiveness of the thermal detection testing is more similar to the latter examples. Consequently, I would be inclined to find that the search did not violate appellant’s rights under either the United States or Pennsylvania Constitution.

. See, Commonwealth v. Oglialoro, 525 Pa. 250, 579 A.2d 1288 (1990), and Commonwealth v. Johnston, 515 Pa. 454, 530 A.2d 74 (1987).