S.D.Fla.: Inventory of defendant’s wallet was valid

In this identity theft case, inventory of defendant’s wallet was reasonable and it would have occurred in any event on booking. United States v. Bell, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7766 (S.D. Fla. January 18, 2013):

The Court finds Detective St. Fort’s inventory search of Bell’s property was conducted in accordance with his department’s established booking procedures requiring an arrestee’s personal property to be “seized” and “documented.” The removal and documentation of the items found in the defendant’s wallet is similarly consistent with the descriptors solicited on the arresting agency’s personal property form. Additionally, the Court finds that this policy to be consistent with the recognized administrative purposes of the inventory search. Sammons v. Taylor, 967 F.2d 1533, 1543 (11th Cir. 1992). The Miramar Police Department’s policy is clearly designed to identify each item taken from an arrestee.

In practice, Detective St. Fort’s scan of Bell’s property was just thorough enough to allow for a specific description of each item. This is especially important for the kinds of property contained in a person’s wallet: valuable items such as money, debit and credit cards. St. Fort’s scan also enabled him to detect several obvious irregularities on two of the debit cards in the defendant’s possession. To the extent this review of the items contained in the defendant’s wallet constituted a search, it was well within the scope of the inventory exception to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement. …