Court Opinion

ID: 9574241
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:03:39.323272+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:44:16.646362
License: Public Domain

*249Fitzgerald, J.
(concurring). I concur in Judge Holbrook’s opinion. I write separately, however, to acknowledge Justice Marshall’s dissenting opinion in Florida v Bostick, 501 US 429, 441; 111 S Ct 2382; 115 L Ed 2d 389 (1991), wherein he realistically portrayed what is occurring in this country in an attempt to halt the "war on drugs”:
Typically, under this technique, a group of state or federal officers will board a bus while it is stopped at an intermediate point on its route. Often displaying badges, weapons or other indicia of authority, the officers identify themselves and announce their purpose to intercept drug traffickers. They proceed to approach individual passengers, requesting them to show identification, produce their tickets, and explain the purpose of their travels. Never do the officers advise the passengers that they are free not to speak with the officers. An "interview” of this type ordinarily culminates in a request for consent to search the passenger’s luggage.
These sweeps are conducted in "dragnet” style. The police admittedly act without an "articulable suspicion” in deciding which passengers to approach for interviewing. [Citations omitted.]
In discussing the "suspicionless sweep,” the dissent, quoting State v Kerwick, 512 So 2d 347, 348-349 (Fla, 1987), stated at 443:
" '[T]he evidence in this cause has evoked images of other days, under other flags, when no man traveled his nation’s roads or railways without fear of unwarranted interruption, by individuals who held temporary power in the Government. The spectre of American citizens being asked, by badge-wielding police, for identification, travel papers — in short a raison d’etre — is foreign to any fair reading of the Constitution, and its guarantee of human liberties. This is not Hitler’s Berlin, nor *250Stalin’s Moscow, nor is it white supremacist South Africa. Yet in Broward County, Florida, these police officers approach every person on board buses and trains ("that time permits”) and check identification [and] tickets, [and] ask to search luggage — all in the name of "voluntary cooperation” with law enforcement.’ ”
I agree with the dissent in Bostick that "the suspicionless, dragnet-style sweep of buses in intrastate and interstate travel” is not consistent with the Fourth Amendment. Bostick, supra at 444.
Nonetheless, following Supreme Court precedent, as we are compelled to do, the relevant inquiry is whether, under the totality of the circumstances surrounding the encounter, the police conduct would have communicated to a reasonable person that the person was not free to decline the officers’ requests or otherwise terminate the encounter. Bostick, supra at 436. Given the facts of this case, which are amply stated in Judge Holbrook’s opinion, I do not understand how our dissenting colleague can possibly suggest a negative answer to this question. The officer’s repeated questioning regarding the possession of a weapon, after receiving negative responses to his inquiry, was, in my opinion, coercive. The officer went one step further, however, and directly accused defendant of possessing "something illegal.” The officer then asked defendant to "be honest” and tell him what was in the bag. Under the totality of the circumstances, I do not believe that even a wrongfully accused innocent person would have felt free to terminate the encounter.1

 Indeed, I believe this case is distinguishable from the typical case where an individual is not personally accused of criminal activity but is, solely by virtue of his location, subject to police interrogation.