Court Opinion

ID: 9583878
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:42:51.225777+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:04:57.822858
License: Public Domain

MAUGHAN, Justice
(concurring in the result) :
In the result, I concur, but believe a constitutional issue of this magnitude merits greater specificity of the relevant guidelines. Section 41-2-15, U.C.A.1953, authorizes a peace officer to stop a motor vehicle to determine if the driver possesses a valid operator’s license. If the document is in order, do the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments allow the police to continue the detention period, while a radio check for outstanding warrants is made ?
The Fourth Amendment applies to all seizures of the person, including seizures that involve only a brief detention short of traditional arrest. [Citations] “[Wjhenever a police officer accosts an individual and restrains his freedom to walk away, he has ‘seized’ that person,” [Citation] and the Fourth Amendment requires that the seizure be “reasonable.” As with other categories of police action subject to Fourth Amendment constraints, the reasonableness of such seizures depends on a balance between the public interest and the individual’s right to personal security free from arbitrary interference by law officers. [Citations]1
The purpose of Section 41-2-15, U.C.A. 1953, is to promote traffic safety by checking to determine that operators of motor vehicles are duly licensed, and not to aid the State in the identification and apprehension of criminals.
. ■ . . the stop and inquiry must be “reasonably related in scope to the justification for their initiation.”2
any further detention or search must be based on consent or probable cause.3
Under the guise of promoting traffic safety, a person may not be detained and his operator’s license retained by the police, while a radio check for outstanding warrants is made. However, such a ruling does not preclude a policeman from making a reasonable investigatory stop, under appropriate circumstances, in an appropriate manner; even though there is no probable cause to make arrest.
. The Fourth Amendment does not require a policeman who lacks the precise level of information necessary for probable cause to arrest to simply shrug his shoulders and allow a crime to occur or a criminal to escape. On the contrary, Terry recognizes that it may be the essence of good police work to adopt an intermediate response. [Terry v. Ohio] See id., 392 U.S. 1 at 23, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 at 907. A brief stop of a suspicious individual, in order to determine his identity or to maintain the status quo momentarily while obtaining more information, may be most reasonable in light of the facts known to the officer at the time. [Citations] 4
In the instant case, the police did not make the stop to determine if defendant were a licensed driver. The vehicle was stopped to apprehend the passenger by exe*123cuting a warrant of arrest. Under these circumstances it was not unreasonable for the police momentarily to maintain the status quo, while they established the identity of the driver and obtained available information about him. This limited intrusion of defendant’s liberty was justified on the specific facts, extent here, atlhough there was no probable cause for his arrest. The temporary detention of defendant did not violate his rights under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments.5

.United States v. Brignoni-Ponce, 422 U.S. 873, 878, 95 S.Ct. 2574, 2578, 45 L.Ed.2d 607 (1975).

. Id. 422 U.S. at 881, 95 S.Ct. at 2580.

. Id. 422 U.S. at 882, 95 S.Ct. at 2580.

. Adams v. Williams, 407 U.S. 143, 145-146, 92 S.Ct. 1921, 1923, 32 L.Ed.2d 612, 616-617 (1972).

. See State v. Thomas, 24 Ariz.App. 230, 537 P.2d 615 (1975), for the circumstances under which an investigative stop is valid; State v. Byers, 85 Wash.2d 783, 539 P.2d 833, 836 (1975), “The test of the validity of such brief detention is whether from the totality of the circumstances it appears that the detention was based upon reasonable grounds and was not arbitrary or harassing.”