ORDER ANSWERING CERTIFIED QUESTION OF LAW
¶1 The Honorable Sven Erik Holmes, Chief Judge for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma, has certified the following question pursuant to the Revised Uniform Certification of Questions of Law Act, 20 O.S.2001, § 1601 -1611:
Whether police officers from Lawrence, Kansas, who identified themselves as police officers to the owner of a building located in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, but informed the owner prior to requesting consent to search that they were from Kansas and without authority to arrest him, could legally conduct such a search in Oklahoma, and whether the fruits of the subsequent search are admissible in evidence, considering that both Oklahoma and Kansas have statutory prohibitions against police officers acting in their official capacities outside their respective jurisdictions?1
¶2 The following relevant facts were provided by the certifying court:
In August 2000, two police officers from
¶3 At Defendant’s place of employment, the
¶4 Upon contact with Defendant, the officers identified themselves as
¶5 After Defendant provided his statement, the
¶6 The Kansas officers then searched Defendant’s business. Towards the end of their search, after finding numbers on most of the engines, the
¶7 The Kansas officers then obtained consent from Defendant to take records from his residence, and there they obtained additional records from Defendant’s wife. Afterwards, Defendant was interviewed again by the
¶8 Four days later, the
¶9 The United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma found at all times the
AUTHORITY TO ANSWER
¶10
may answer a question of law certified to it by a court of the
20 O.S.2001, § 1602 ; see Canady v. Reynolds, 1994 OK CR 54, ¶ 8, 880 P.2d 391, 393. “This Court has the power to give the present state of the law as well as use the opportunity to create new precedents” when answering a certified question of law. Moore v. Gibson, 2001 OK CR 8, ¶ 6, 27 P.3d 483, 485; Canady, 1994 OK CR 54, ¶ 12, 880 P.2d at 395. In so doing, we may reformulate or reinterpret a question of law certified to this Court. Gibson, id.; Canady, id.
DISCUSSION
¶11 Generally, a police officer’s authority cannot extend beyond his jurisdiction. Graham v. State, 1977 OK CR 1, ¶¶ 13-14, 560 P.2d 200, 203. Recognized exceptions to this general rule are (1) hot pursuit, (2) when one municipality has requested assistance pursuant to 11 O.S.2001, § 34-103 , and (3) when an officer is serving an arrest warrant.
¶12 This Court’s decision in Phipps is dispositive of the question certified.3 In Phipps, this Court held a police officer acting outside his jurisdiction may not conduct a consensual search if the consent is obtained while the officer is acting under color of law.
[t]here can be no doubt, however, that had a private citizen told appellant they suspected she was transporting marijuana and asked to look in her trunk, appellant would not have let them. Thus, it is clear that Officer Kinney was acting under color of law and the appellant believed that he had such authority when he asked to search appellant’s vehicle. We therefore hold that the search of appellant’s car while it was beyond the
¶13 In this case, there is no question that the
¶14 Further, the District Court found the officers were “at all times relevant hereto . . . acting under color of law.” While the
¶15 “At some point near the end of the search,” the
¶16 Defendant’s initial consent for the
¶17 The Kansas officers’ request for assistance from the
¶18 Lastly, the facts provided suggest the
¶19 The evidence obtained pursuant to the search warrant also must be suppressed, because the evidence establishing probable cause for the issuance of the warrant was obtained by the
ANSWER
¶20 For the reasons set forth above, we answer the question submitted as follows: Under
¶21 IT IS SO ORDERED.
¶22 WITNESS OUR HANDS AND THE SEAL OF THIS COURT this 8th day of June, 2004.
/s/ Charles A. Johnson, Presiding Judge
CHARLES A. JOHNSON, Presiding Judge
/s/
STEVE LILE, Vice Presiding Judge
/s/ Gary L. Lumpkin, Dissent (Writing Attached)
GARY L. LUMPKIN, Judge
/s/ Charles S. Chapel
CHARLES S. CHAPEL, Judge
/s/ Reta M. Strubhar
RETA M. STRUBHAR, Judge
ATTEST:
/s/Michael S. Richie
Clerk
FOOTNOTES
1 See 11 O.S.2001, § 34-103 ; K.S.A. § 22-2401a (2001).
2 Miranda v.
3 The dissent claims Phipps is inapplicable to this case because the
The question presented to this Court concerned the validity of a consent to search obtained by police officers who were acting outside their jurisdiction. For the dissent to describe the Kansas officers’ contact with Defendant as a “consensual” encounter requires one to ignore the facts which show these officers at all times acted under color of law and facts from which one can infer the Defendant believed he was dealing with police officers and not private citizens. The United States District Court did not ask this Court whether the
Nothing in Phipps or in this decision prohibits officers from other states from conducting investigations outside their jurisdictions. However, at the point such investigation involves a search or an arrest, the law in this State protects its citizens and requires such actions be made by those with authority to conduct the same. Here, the
LUMPKIN, J.: DISSENTING
¶1 I must respectfully dissent to the analysis and answer provided to the certified question of law. The issue presented by the fact situation submitted by the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma is the ability of an officer to conduct an investigation outside his or her jurisdiction, not affect an arrest. This Court’s Order fails to recognize that distinction.
¶2 In Oklahoma, the authority to arrest, either as a law enforcement officer or a private citizen, is controlled by statute. See 22 O.S. 2001, §§ 186 - 209. It is these statutes that our case law has interpreted with regards to police officers acting outside of their jurisdiction. Now this Court seeks to apply this law relating to arrests to an entirely different area of criminal law procedure, i.e. pre-charging investigation and due process. I submit the Order fails to recognize and, in turn, apply the correct legal analysis to the facts presented.
¶3 Initially, we must recognize that
¶4 The U.S. Supreme Court, as well as the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, has determined that there are three general types of encounters between citizens and the police. These are: (1) consensual encounters that are not Fourth Amendment Seizures since they only involve a person’s voluntary cooperation with an officer’s non-coercive questioning; (2) investigative detention, which are Fourth Amendment seizures justified only if there is a reasonable suspicion that the person has committed or is committing a crime; and (3) arrests which are Fourth Amendment seizures characterized by highly intrusive or lengthy detention and justified only if there is probable cause to believe that a person has committed or is committing a crime. Terry v.
¶5 For the following reasons, this case falls under the category of a consensual encounter between the police and the defendant. In Florida v. Bostick, 501
¶6 In U.S. v. Mendenhall, 446
Only when such restraint is imposed is there any foundation whatever for invoking constitutional safeguards. The purpose of the Fourth Amendment is not to eliminate all contact between the police and the citizenry, but "to prevent arbitrary and oppressive interference by enforcement officials with the privacy and personal security of individuals." As long as the person to whom questions are put remains free to disregard the questions and walk away, there has been no intrusion upon that person's liberty or privacy as would under the Constitution require some particularized and objective justification.
446
¶7 The Tenth Circuit, in United States v. Zapata, 997 F.2d 751 (10th Cir.1993), enumerated a number of factors to consider in determining whether a police-citizen encounter becomes a seizure. The court stated that we must look at the location of the encounter, "particularly whether the defendant is in an open public place where he is within the view of persons other than law enforcement officers; whether the officers touch or physically restrain the defendant; whether the officers are uniformed or in plain clothes; whether their weapons are displayed; the number, demeanor and tone of voice of the officer; whether and for how long the officers retained the defendant's personal effects, such as tickets or identification; and whether or not they have specifically advised defendant at any time that he had the right to terminate the encounter or refuse consent."
¶8 An analysis of the above factors indicates that in the instant case a consensual encounter occurred between the
¶9 After the initial interview, the defendant agreed to the officers’ request to take them to his motorcycle motor sales business. The defendant drove separately, in his own vehicle, to the business, with the officers following behind. Once there, the defendant agreed to sign a consent to search form. As with the giving of the Miranda warning, it was not necessary for the officers to have obtained a signed consent form. As the Supreme Court stated in Schneckloth v. Bustamonte, 412
. . when the subject of a search is not in custody and the State attempts to justify a search on the basis of his consent, the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments require that it demonstrate that the consent was in fact voluntarily given, and not the result of duress or coercion, express or implied. Voluntariness is a question of fact *249 to be determined from all the circumstances, and while the subject's knowledge of a right to refuse is a factor to be taken into account, the prosecution is not required to demonstrate such knowledge as a prerequisite to establishing a voluntary consent.
412
¶10 The Supreme Court also said:
While the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments limit the circumstances under which the police can conduct a search, there is nothing constitutionally suspect in a person's voluntarily allowing a search. . . . And, unlike those constitutional guarantees that protect a defendant at trial, it cannot be said every reasonable presumption ought to be indulged against voluntary relinquishment. We have only recently stated: '(I)t is no part of the policy underlying the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to discourage citizens from aiding to the utmost of their ability in the apprehension of criminals.' Rather, the community has a real interest in encouraging consent, for the resulting search may yield necessary evidence for the solution and prosecution of crime, evidence that may insure that a wholly innocent person is not wrongly charged with a criminal offense.
412
¶11 In this case, there is no evidence of any inherently coercive tactics--either from the nature of the police questioning or the environment in which it took place. The search took place at the defendant’s place of business. “Since consent searches will normally occur on a person's own familiar territory, the specter of incommunicado police interrogation in some remote station house is simply inapposite.” Schneckloth, 412
¶12 The original question posed to this Court from Judge Holmes focused on whether the conduct of the
¶13 However, that is not the issue in the present case, as the arrest was made by the local Bartlesville Police, not the
¶14 Here, the
. . . Nothing we have said today affects the powers of the police to investigate 'an unsolved crime,' . . . by gathering information from witnesses and by other 'proper investigative efforts.'. . . We hold only that when the process shifts from investigatory to accusatory--when its focus is on the accused and its purpose is to elicit a confession--our adversary system begins to operate, and, under the circumstances here, the accused must be permitted to consult with his lawyer.
378
¶15 While the
¶16 In our previous state cases, this Court has held that officers acting outside their jurisdiction act as private citizens. See also Horn v. City of Seat Pleasant, Md., 57 F. Supp.2d 219, 225 (D.Md.1999) (“an officer acting beyond his jurisdiction loses his cloak of authority.”) Here, the
¶17 Accordingly, the encounter between the
¶18 Based upon this analysis, I believe the descriptive term “acting as a private citizen” has been overused, and to a degree misused when analyzing the role of law enforcement in our mobile society. Its use has been unknowingly wrongly extended merely because
¶19 I am authorized to state Judge Lile joins in this analysis and vote.
FOOTNOTES
1 Further, this case is more consistent and a natural extension of our decision in Staller. In Staller, officers arranged for a confidential informant to contact suspected drug dealers to schedule some "buy/walk" drug sales. The confidential informant contacted the appellant and agreed to buy illegal drugs from him. 932 P.2d at 1139. This type of active participation in the arranging of a controlled drug buy is different from the investigative actions of the