{"id":8178,"date":"2013-06-19T09:35:52","date_gmt":"2013-01-03T07:43:17","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-01-03T07:43:17","slug":"en-US","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=8178","title":{"rendered":"CA4: Written inventory policy not constitutionally required"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lack of a written policy does not make an inventory invalid. Bertine<\/a> requires a \u201cstandard criteria\u201d and following it is all that is required. Leaving defendant\u2019s car in a Wal-Mart parking lot is not required by the police. United States v. Cartrette<\/a>, 502 Fed. Appx. 311 (4th Cir. 2012):<\/p>\n

In the instant case, no one was immediately available to take custody of Cartrette’s vehicle, and a reasonable officer could have concluded that it constituted a nuisance where it was parked, in a Wal-Mart parking lot. Even if we credit Cartrette’s testimony that his brother was nearby \u2013 testimony the district court did not find credible, see J.A. 353 \u2013 the police were not required to stay on the scene and wait for the brother to return. See Brown, 787 F.2d at 932 (impoundment reasonable when no known individual is “immediately available to take custody of the car”).<\/p>\n

Furthermore, we are not persuaded by Cartrette’s argument that the Conway Police Department’s lack of a written impoundment policy renders the impoundment unlawful. Bertine requires standard criteria for impounding vehicles, 479 U.S. at 375, but it does not require the criteria to be in writing. Here, the testimony of Officers Ridgeway and Hardee indicates there was a standard procedure to impound vehicles when no one is immediately available to take custody of the vehicle, and that they understood and followed that procedure. The district court was entitled to credit that testimony.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Notes: (1) Wal-Mart allows people with RVs to park on store parking lots overnight, but that does not by any means mean that a vehicle can be left there for days on end. Here, the police were not required to wait for the brother at all. If he were coming that day, what would be the harm in leaving the car on the Wal-Mart parking lot for a half day or even a day? Wal-Mart would clearly not care. But, there is something else more obviously at work: The allegedly non-pretextual search of the trunk of the car that turned up the shotgun. If there was no inventory, well, then, the police could not have found it and this case would not exist.<\/p>\n

(2) Bertine<\/a> requires a \u201cstandard criteria,\u201d and a lack of a writing is an open invitation to abuse. Any police department larger than two officers ought to have a written inventory policy by now. Inventory has been recognized over 35 years since South Dakota v. Opperman<\/a>, probably since before this searching officer was born. It’s not that hard to come up with a policy since almost all departments of any repute have one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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