NY1: Consent to “take a look” in or “check” a car doesn’t include the locked glove compartment

A police request to “take a look” in a car or to “check” it for contraband does not include looking in locked containers. Here, the officer did take a look, then took the keys and unlocked the glove compartment finding a gun. That exceeded the consent. The state’s burden in a consent case is “heavy,” and here not met. People v. McFarlane, 2012 NY Slip Op 01754, 939 N.Y.S.2d 460 (1st Dept. 2012):

Here, the officer’s request to “take a look” into the car or “check” it for contraband could reasonably have been understood to be a request to search the vehicle, possibly to include closed containers, but it did not reasonably imply a request for permission to open the locked glove compartment (cf. People v Gomez, 5 NY3d 416, 418-419, 838 N.E.2d 1271, 805 N.Y.S.2d 24 [2005] [general consent to search car did not authorize breaking into hidden compartment]). That the officer subjectively intended to search the glove compartment when he made the request is not determinative. Normally, a locked container can only be opened by breaking into it or using a key. A reasonable person in defendant’s situation would have assumed that if the officer wanted to open the glove compartment with defendant’s consent he would have asked for the key or asked defendant to open it. The officer did neither; after checking the seats and the center console, he simply took the keys from the ignition and opened the glove compartment.