State v. Chambers
State v. Chambers
Opinion of the Court
Was the police officer entitled to interrogate a person who had come into the apartment where illegal drugs had been found during a valid consent search of such premises? Was there a reasonable basis for the officer’s suspicion that such person carried a weapon ?
Both questions must be answered affirmatively to make the pat-down of the defendant’s outer jacket pockets by the police officer proper, prudent and permissible. Each question is to be answered in the light of the surrounding circumstances. That is made clear in a very recent decision of the United States Supreme Court.
We deal here with a very limited frisking or pat-down, no more than a patting of the hands on the outside of jacket pockets to determine if they contained a gun or blackjack or other weapon. That it was a frisking for weapons, no more, is clear, not only from the officer’s testimony, but from the nature of the patting down. If the officers had been looking for a marijuana cigarette or heroin capsule concealed in the jacket pockets, a pat on the outside of the pockets would hardly have revealed the presence of either cigarette or capsule.
That this was a bona fide pat-down for weapons and not in any way a search of the person for illegal drugs
It was only when the ninth person, wearing a bulky jacket with two large, slash-type pockets, walked into the kitchen that what this court has termed “necessarily swift action predicated upon the on-the-spot observations of the officer”
Under the Adams holding, it is the surrounding circumstances that one looks to to determine if there was a reasonable basis for investigating or interrogating and for the frisking or patting down of the person stopped for questioning.
Moreover, it is to the totality of circumstances present, and inferences properly drawn therefrom, that we must
Here are the surrounding circumstances that, considered together, we hold to render entirely reasonable stopping the defendant for questioning and the preceding of such questioning by the patting of his outside jacket pockets to see if they contained a weapon.
Fact of search. When the defendant was patted down for weapons, he had entered an apartment in which the two police officers were conducting a search of the premises. No challenge is made to the validity of that search of the premises. It was made with the consent of the person who rented or leased the apartment searched. At the time of the defendant’s entry, the officers had already found a quantity of illegal drugs stored on the premises. The two officers were engaged in the discharge of an official and often enough risky police function. The officers were entitled to take into consideration that, in searches as in arrests, it is not uncommon to encounter violent resistance from those involved or affected.
Place entered. The defendant walked into the apartment in which the police had found illegal drugs. He was not stopped on a public street,
Manner of entry. The defendant rang the buzzer, came up the steps, opened the door and walked into the apartment. He did not wait to identify himself nor to be invited to step in. Any inference that he came to this particular premises by mistake or to deliver a pizza pie is rendered untenable by the manner and place of entry. The officers were justified in inferring that the defendant was not paying a first visit and that his lack of formality in entering the place being searched might be far greater than that of a casual visitor coming for the first time to the premises. If this circumstance did not increase the likelihood of his being armed, it certainly increased the likelihood of his using a weapon to block the search, if weapon he had on him. And it is use, not possession, of a weapon that police officers have reason to fear.
Officers outnumbered. Ten persons were in the apartment when the officers commenced their consent search of the premises. Two were police officers, and eight were persons who were in the apartment. One was known as a user and seller of illegal drugs. When the defendant arrived, he was the 11th person present. There had been no disorder, other than the disturbing behavior of one person present who went from room to room, locking himself in the bathroom, coming out, and repeating the process. But the fact that the two police officers were thus outnumbered made the danger of disorder and the consequences of a weapon being carried by one of those present greater for the officers and for all others present.
Scope and, extent. What this court has termed the “scope and intensity” of a search is involved in determining whether the police procedure followed was reasonable.
Under these circumstances, and all of them, we hold that the police officer clearly had the right to question the defendant when he walked into the apartment where a valid search was being conducted. We do not see as at all involved defendant’s contention that at the time of the walk-in, the police did not arrest him nor did they have any evidence that he had committed any crime. Under the circumstances they did have the right to investigate further, including the right to interrogate the defendant, constitutional assurances given, as to why he had come to the premises being searched.
Having the right to further investigate, the police officer, under the circumstances here, clearly had the right to pat down the outside pockets of defendant’s jacket to make sure that he did not have a revolver or other weapon there concealed. The facts and circumstances make entirely reasonable the officer’s inference that the defendant represented a danger and was armed.
The only case we have found in which the circumstances are substantially similar to those listed is a Colorado case. There, during a valid search of premises for drugs, the defendant came to the premises and entered. The police officer informed the defendant that he was going to frisk him for weapons, and, when defendant put his hand back in his pocket, the officer jerked the hand out of the pocket. As he did so, a plastic bag containing marijuana protruded from the pocket. Holding the frisking reasonable and the evidence obtained admissible, the Colorado Supreme Court held:
“It is certainly reasonable for a police officer conducting a legal search of premises which he believes to be involved in the sale of narcotics to frisk occupants and those coming to the house for weapons in order to protect himself against the use of such weapons.”15
We agree with the result and reasoning of the Colorado decision.
A contrary holding would expose law officers in this state to a heightened risk of loss of life or serious injury in the conducting of valid searches and the performance of their official duties. This court, some years ago, noted that: “In a recent California case the court took note of numerous attacks which have been made upon law-enforcement officers,”
*302 “It seems to us that the protection of the lives of our law-enforcement officers outweighs the slight affront to personal dignity of the arrested person who undergoes a search for weapons.”17
In the years since the Barnes and Davis Cases were written, attacks upon police officers, including their assassination while engaged in the performance of their official duties, have increased astronomically.
By the Court. — Order reversed and cause remanded with directions to deny the motion to suppress evidence and to proceed with trial.
Adams v. Williams (1972), 407 U. S. 143, 92 Sup. Ct. 1921, 32 L. Ed. 2d 612.
Id. at page 145, stating: “In Terry this court recognized that ‘a police officer may in appropriate circumstances and in an appropriate manner approach a person for the purposes of investigating possibly criminal behavior even though there is no probable cause to make an arrest.’ ” (Citing Terry v. Ohio (1968), 392 U. S. 1, 22, 88 Sup. Ct. 1868, 20 L. Ed. 2d 889.)
Id. at pages 145, 146, stating: “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. See id., at 23. 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. . . .” (Citing Terry v. Ohio, supra, at pages 21, 22.)
Id. at page 146, holding: “The court recognized in Terry that the policeman making a reasonable investigatory stop should not be denied the opportunity to protect himself from attack by a hostile suspect. . . .”
Id. at page 146. (Citing Terry v. Ohio, supra, at page 30.)
Id. at page 146, stating: “. . . The purpose of this limited search is not to discover evidence of crime, but to allow the officer to pursue his investigation without fear of violence, and thus the frisk for weapons might he equally necessary and reasonable, whether or not carrying a concealed weapon violated any applicable state law. . . .” (Citing Terry v. Ohio, supra, at page 30.)
See: State v. Dodd (1965), 28 Wis. 2d 643, 647, 137 N. W. 2d 465, where this court doubted that a weapons search was only that, observing: “. . . A search for weapons in the clothing to be worn by Dodd would hardly include such a minute search of a pocket in a shirt as would disclose two seeds of marijuana. . . .”
Warrix v. State (1971), 50 Wis. 2d 368, 375, 184 N. W. 2d 189,' quoting Terry v. Ohio, supra, as having “. . . justified the ‘stop- and-frisk’- procedure on pragmatic grounds because it involved ‘an entire rubric of police conduct — necessarily swift action predicated upon the on-the-spot observations of the officer ....’”
Adams v. Williams, supra.
Id. at page 148, concluding: “Under these circumstances the policeman’s action in reaching to the spot where the gun was thought to be hidden constituted a limited intrusion designed to insure his safety and we conclude that it was reasonable. The loaded gun seized as a result of this intrusion was therefore admissible at Williams’ trial. . . .” (Emphasis supplied.)
Id. at page 147.
See: Sibron v. New York (1968), 392 U. S. 40, 64, 88 Sup. Ct. 1889, 20 L. Ed. 2d 917, stating: “The police officer is not entitled to seize and search every person whom he sees on the street or of whom he makes inquiries.”
See: State v. Dodd, supra, at pages 646, 647.
See: Warrix v. State, supra, at page 375, where this court held that: “We think the officers under the facts then available to them were reasonable in the method of patting down the defendants and in their belief that their action was appropriate and necessary.” (Emphasis supplied.)
People v. Nefzger (Colo. 1970), 476 Pac. 2d 995, at page 996.
Barnes v. State (1964), 25 Wis. 2d 116, 180 N. W. 2d 264, at page 125, citing People v. Davis (1961), 188 Cal. App. 2d 718, 722, 10 Cal. Rptr. 610.
Id, at page 125.
In Adams v. Williams, supra, the United States Supreme Court noted in fn. 3, at page 148: “Figures reported by the Federal Bureau of Investigation indicate that 125 policemen were murdered in 1971, with all but five of them having been killed by gunshot wounds. . . .”
Dissenting Opinion
(dissenting). I respectfully dissent because this search was unreasonable. While I support the general proposition that police need protection when they are suspicious of an individual, the record here simply does not support the conclusion that the police officer conducting the search had any suspicion whatsoever that this defendant was violating any laws or was in any way dangerous when he entered the room. This fact distinguishes the present appeal from the cases relied upon by the majority. Adams v. Williams,
The county court was clearly incorrect in holding that a defendant must be under arrest or charged at the time of the search in order for it to be valid. The majority would order the trial court to deny the motion to suppress. But there are no facts to support the majority’s determination. The consistent, unrefuted, and
I have been authorized to state that Mr. Chief Justice Hallows and Mr. Justice Heffernan join in this dissent.
(1972), 407 U. S. 143, 92 Sup. Ct. 1921, 32 L. Ed. 2d 612.
(1968), 392 U. S. 1, 88 Sup. Ct. 1868, 20 L. Ed. 2d 889.
For a detailed discussion of the law relating to weapon searches of individuals not suspected of crimes, see People v. Superior Court of Los Angeles County (1972), 7 Cal. 3d 186, 101 Cal. Rptr. 837, 496 Pac. 2d 1205, wherein the Supreme Court of California declared unconstitutional a weapons search of a person stopped for a traffic violation when the police admitted that they had no cause to believe that the person searched had committed a crime or was carrying a weapon. See especially 101 Cal. Rptr. at page 852.
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