CA8 considers different standards for “community caretaking” v. investigation of crime

A Kansas City Greyhound bus employee called police to say that a man fell asleep on a bench in the bus station (“a high crime area”) and a gun was hanging out of his pocket. The police response was a part of their community caretaking (“community caretaker” here) function, not investigation of a crime. It turned out defendant was a convicted felon. United States v. Harris, 747 F.3d 1013 (8th Cir. 2014):

We must first determine the capacity in which the officers were acting here because “there is a difference between the standards that apply when an officer [acts] as a so-called community caretaker and when he or she [acts] to investigate a crime.” See Quezada, 448 F.3d at 1007. Viewing the circumstances and the officers’ actions objectively, see Ashcroft v. al-Kidd, 131 S. Ct. 2074, 2080-83 (2011); Brigham City, 547 U.S. at 404-05, we are satisfied that the officers were acting in their community caretaker capacity. The police department received a request from Greyhound to assist it in dealing with a dangerous, potentially volatile situation. The circumstances in this case are analogous to those in Quezada and Winters, in which the officers were forced to respond to potential emergency situations while assisting members of the community. See Quezada, 448 F.3d at 1006-07 (holding community caretaker doctrine applied when officer encountered emergency while serving a child-protection order); Winters, 254 F.3d at 762-64 (holding community caretaker doctrine applied when officers responded to a complaint that an individual was acting irrationally at the end of a dead-end street in a residential area).

Next, we must weigh the government’s interest in the officers’ actions against Harris’s right to be free from government intrusion. When the officers arrived at the public, highly trafficked Greyhound bus station, which is in a high-crime area, they saw a handgun hanging out of Harris’s pocket. Any number of dangerous, or even deadly, outcomes could have resulted if the officers had permitted the situation to continue uninterrupted. See United States v. Janis, 387 F.3d 682, 687-88 (8th Cir. 2004) (permitting officers to secure a weapon that had been used in an accidental shooting); see also Florida v. J.L., 529 U.S. 266, 272 (2000) (“Firearms are dangerous, and extraordinary dangers sometimes justify unusual precautions.”). The justification for the limited intrusion was not simply a suspicion that Harris was carrying a firearm, see, e.g., J.L., 529 U.S. at 270-73; Jones, 606 F.3d at 965-66, or even actual knowledge that Harris was carrying a firearm; the justification was that the police knew that Harris was carelessly handling a firearm in a dangerous and public location that had forbidden firearms. Unlike most typical Fourth Amendment encounters, the governmental interest vindicating the officers’ actions here is not encompassed in the enforcement of criminal statutes but, instead, in the officers’ obligation “to help those in danger and to protect property,” see Quezada, 448 F.3d at 1007, and to “‘ensure the safety of the public and/or the individual, regardless of any suspected criminal activity.'” See Samuelson, 455 F.3d at 877 (quoting Winters, 254 F.3d at 763)); cf. Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 13 & n.9 (1968) (reasoning that a police encounter may “be designed simply to help an intoxicated person find his way home, with no intention of arresting him unless he becomes obstreperous”). In light of the risks Harris’s exposed and unguarded firearm posed, the officers were permitted, and likely expected, to remove the firearm from Harris’s pocket. See United States v. Collins, 321 F.3d 691, 694-95 (8th Cir. 2003) (holding that the police were justified to conduct a brief search of a car after shots were fired in the area because not doing so “would have been irresponsible and, quite possibly, a basis for civil liability had the individuals . . . been injured”).

Once we are satisfied that the initial encounter was justified, we must assess whether the scope of the encounter was carefully tailored to satisfy the purpose of the initial detention. Here, we consider the protective measures the police took to ensure their safety and the scope and duration of the intrusion. …

In the course of an encounter, police officers may take steps reasonably necessary to protect their personal safety. …