{"id":4499,"date":"2011-04-14T07:03:08","date_gmt":"2010-08-02T09:40:49","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-08-02T09:40:49","slug":"en-US","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=4499","title":{"rendered":"AZ: Gun in vehicle could be seized under “community caretaker doctrine” which is not the same as Quarles<\/em>‘s Fifth Amendment public safety exception"},"content":{"rendered":"

Defendant’s disabled pickup truck had a gun in it, and it was visible. Officers could enter the vehicle to seize it under the public safety exception to protect against its theft or use. This is not the same as Quarles’s public safety exception to Miranda. State v. Mendoza-Ruiz<\/a>, 225 Ariz. 473, 240 P.3d 1235, 587 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 6 (Ariz. App. 2010):<\/p>\n

P12 Here, the officers entered the cab of the pickup and removed the gun because of their legitimate concern for public safety. At the suppression hearing, Officer J.M. said that the gun was clearly visible from outside the cab of the vehicle. She testified that the area where the truck was parked was busy because of a nearby restaurant and nightclub. She also testified that the restaurant where the truck was parked was a \u201clocation of high crime, shootings, [and] aggravated assaults.\u201d As the Supreme Court did in Cady<\/a>, we conclude it was reasonable for Officers N.D. and J.M. to enter the vehicle and secure the firearm to protect public safety. In fact, the public danger here was even more pressing than in Cady<\/a>, in which the firearm was not visible because it was in the trunk, and the car was crashed on the side of a rural road, rather than in a busy, high-crime neighborhood.<\/p>\n

P13 We also reject defendant’s argument that the community caretaker doctrine is \u201cinterchangeable\u201d with the public safety exception to Miranda v. Arizona<\/a>, 384 U.S. 436 (1966), and therefore only relates to the admissibility of statements and not physical evidence. The public safety exception was most notably expressed in New York v. Quarles<\/a>, 467 U.S. 649, 655-56 (1984), in which the Court held that Miranda did not require suppression of a defendant’s answer when questioned by a police officer about where he hid a gun while being pursued in a grocery store because the question was \u201creasonably prompted by a concern for the public safety.\u201d But the two doctrines are not interchangeable because they pertain to two entirely different rules. Quarles<\/a> allowed a public safety exception to the general rule that a suspect’s statement made during custodial interrogation is not admissible unless he is first informed of his Fifth Amendment rights. Id. at 655-56. The community caretaker function as applied in Cady<\/a> concerns the admissibility of physical evidence under the Fourth Amendment. 413 U.S. at 441.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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