Court Opinion

ID: 9734039
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 17:23:28.255431+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:45.236952
License: Public Domain

LARSEN, Justice,
dissenting.
I strongly dissent to the majority’s invalidation of roadblock stops of motor vehicles for the purpose of observing drivers to determine whether they are operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol. I would uphold the legality of said roadblock stops.
The majority erroneously holds that the 1983 version of 75 Pa. C.S.A. § 6308(b) “by necessary implication” restricted the police powers and prohibited the police roadblock procedures employed herein. The majority reasons that legislative grants of authority to police officers to stop vehicles under specific circumstances necessarily precluded the stopping of vehicles under all other circumstances. I do not agree that these grants of authority can restrict the exercise of legitimate police powers.
In 1985, the General Assembly did pass specific legislation explicitly authorizing a “police officer ... engaged in a systematic program of checking vehicles or drivers” to stop a vehicle upon request or signal to “secure such other information as the officer may reasonably believe to be necessary to enforce the provisions” of the Motor Vehicle Code. 75 Pa.C.S.A. § 6308(b), Authority of police officer (Purdon’s supp. 1987). (This amendment to the Code was enacted in apparent response to the cases before us in this appeal.) Prior to 1985, the Code did not specifically authorize such systematic roadblock stops, but neither did it *303prohibit them. In my view, the pre-1985 absence of specific legislative authorization for systematic roadblock stops is not fatal to the police procedures employed by the municipalities involved in this appeal.
Statutes do not authorize each and every enforcement method that a police officer might use in performing his or her duties. Statutes specifically authorize certain methods and mechanisms of enforcement, and specifically prohibit others. However, some actions that a police officer takes are not found in statutes because authority for those actions emanates from the officer’s traditional and inherent authority under the “police powers.” As we stated in Commonwealth v. Mikulan, 504 Pa. 244, 247, 470 A.2d 1339, 1340-41 (1983):
[I]t has been said that probably the most important function of government is the exercise of the police power for the purpose of preserving the public health, safety and welfare, and it is true that, to accomplish that purpose, the legislature may limit the enjoyment of personal liberty and property____ The police powers of the Commonwealth are particularly broad in matters pertaining to the safety and efficient functioning of the highways, ... and are perhaps strongest in matters pertaining to the sale, consumption and regulation of alcoholic beverages____ With section 3731(a)(4), [establishing a maximum permissible blood alcohol content of 0.10%] the legislature has exercised its broad police powers in these areas in an attempt to halt, or at least to retard, the wanton and senseless slaughter of and injury to innocent people upon our highways caused by drunk drivers. In South Dakota v. Neville, supra, [459 U.S. 553, 103 S.Ct. 916, 74 L.Ed.2d 748 (1983)] the United States Supreme Court recently rejected a claim that the admission into evidence of an alleged drunk driver’s refusal to submit to a blood-alcohol test violates his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. In so holding, that Court stated:
*304The situation underlying this case — that of the drunk driver — occurs with tragic frequency on our Nation’s highways. The carnage caused by drunk drivers is well documented and needs no detailed recitation here. This Court, although not having the daily contact with the problem that the state courts have, has repeatedly lamented the tragedy____
459 U.S. 553, 103 S.Ct. 916, 74 L.Ed.2d 748.... When we consider [that “the slaughter on the highways of this Nation exceeds the death toll of all our wars,”] that over three-quarters of a million human beings are seriously, and often permanently, injured and maimed as a result of alcohol related accidents, the emotional trauma and economic loss experienced by the victims and their families, and the millions of dollars of property damage, it is easy to see that society is faced with a problem of frightening and epidemic dimensions. (Emphasis added; some citations omitted.)
Given that the “police powers” reach their zenith in matters pertaining to the control of intoxicating liquor and the prohibition of intoxicated drivers of vehicles from our highways, I would hold that those charged with the responsibility of enforcing the Motor Vehicle Code may utilize any reasonable procedure upon our highways to achieve that goal so long as the procedure is not prohibited by the constitution, statute or precedent. I believe the source of the authorization to utilize the police procedures in question here lies in the inherent police powers of the state and its political subdivisions. Moreover, there is statutory authorization for such procedures, albeit general.
Section 6109 of the Code provides that “The provisions of this title shall not be deemed to prevent the ... local authorities on streets and highways within their physical boundaries from the reasonable exercise of their police powers.” 75 Pa.C.S.A. § 6109(a). This provision then enumerates twenty-three specific items which are “presumed to be reasonable exercises of police power,” but this list is not exclusive nor does it purport to be. The majority makes it *305clear by its discussion of the constitutionality of systematic “DUI” roadblocks that this police procedure is a “reasonable exercise of the police powers.” See majority slip op. at 1037-1043, section II. On the one side of the ledger is the danger, devastation and destruction caused by drunken drivers upon our public highways and the need for effective mechanisms to prevent that carnage from taking its awesome toll, and on the other side is the relatively minimal intrusion upon a person’s right to travel this Commonwealth’s highways. There is no contest ... the method chosen by the municipalities herein to enforce the Motor Vehicle Code’s proscriptions against drinking and driving is obviously a reasonable exercise of the police powers, and is authorized, therefore, by Section 6109.
As the New York Court of Appeals has stated:
There can be no question that substantial reductions have occurred since 1980 in the deaths, injuries, and damage resulting from drunk driving. The extent to which those results stem from legislative reforms during that period as distinct from the deterrent effect of roadblocks and other educational and public information programs aimed at combatting the problem is not revealed, but in our view is not of constitutional moment. It is enough that such checkpoints, when their use becomes known, do have a substantial impact on the drunk driving problem. The State is entitled in the interest of public safety to bring all available resources to bear, without having to spell out the exact efficiency coefficient of each component and the separate effects of any particular component.
People v. Scott, 63 N.Y.2d 518, 528-29, 483 N.Y.S.2d 649, 653-54, 473 N.E.2d 1, 5-6 (1984) (emphasis added). So too, our municipalities are entitled, in the interest of public safety, to bring all reasonable “available resources” (i.e., those reasonable exercises of police power not prohibited by constitution, statute or precedent) to bear on the pernicious social phenomenon known as drunk driving and these reasonable available resources include roadblock stops.
*306Therefore, I dissent and would reverse the orders of Superior Court.