128 Wash. App. 855 | Wash. Ct. App. | 2005
Lead Opinion
FACTS
A. Background
¶2 The police dispatch system informed two officers of a citizen informant’s 911 call that reported a minor might be carrying a gun. The dispatch reported that the informant described the person as a “[l]ight-skinned black male, 17 [years of age], 5’ 9”, thin, Afro, goatee, dark shirt, tan pants, carrying a green backpack and a black backpack.” Report of Proceedings (Nov. 18, 2003) (RP) at 10-11.
¶3 The police dispatch informed the officers that the caller was a citizen, but the dispatch did not provide the officers with a name. A computer inside the officers’ patrol car displayed an incident report indicating the informant’s name and cell phone number and a different phone number for the second call. But the officers testified that they did not know the informant, did not know anything about the informant, and did not know if the informant knew Hopkins. One officer testified that the informant requested
¶4 The officers went to the public pay phone at the location the informant identified. The officers saw a black male who resembled the informant’s description hanging up the phone. One officer testified the person had his back to them. Neither officer observed a gun or any illegal, dangerous, or suspicious activity.
¶5 Based on the informant’s tip, the officers approached Hopkins at the pay phone and ordered him to put his hands up in the air and keep them in sight. They then asked him if he had a gun. Hopkins responded that he might have a gun in his pocket. After a frisk, the officers discovered a loaded revolver in Hopkins’ front pants pocket. The officers handcuffed Hopkins, placed him in the patrol car, and read his Miranda
¶6 The officers transported Hopkins to jail. Before booking him, an officer performed a search and discovered a small baggie containing a white powdered substance that was later tested to be approximately two-tenths of a gram of methamphetamine.
B. Procedural History
¶7 The State charged Hopkins with one count of unlawful possession of a controlled substance with a firearm enhancement, one count of making a false or misleading statement to a public servant, and one count of first degree unlawful possession of a firearm.
¶9 At the CrR 3.6 suppression hearing, the officers testified that they did not contact the informant and that they knew nothing about him. One officer testified that she did not attempt to contact the informant because, “[t]he caller had requested no contact.” RP at 20. The other officer testified that they did not know if the informant knew Hopkins. Both officers testified that they did not observe any criminal or suspicious behavior; rather, they saw a person who resembled the informant’s description hang up the phone at a phone booth and they immediately contacted him. They approached Hopkins primarily out of officer safety because Hopkins was allegedly a minor with a gun. They did not see a bulge in Hopkins’ pocket or other resemblance of a gun, nor did they see the gun until after the frisk.
¶10 The trial court denied Hopkins’ suppression motion but stated that it was a “close case.” RP at 49. The trial court questioned the reliability of the informant’s tip that initiated the officers’ investigatory stop. The trial court stated,
Anybody seeing an acquaintance or someone who wanted to get Mr. Hopkins in trouble with the police could call up and say what he’s wearing, he’s got a gun. So the fact that somebody*861 calls and says somebody has a gun doesn’t allow the officers to stop them. And I was a little concerned. It sounds like the officers were assuming this anonymous tip must be correct. I thought maybe they gave it a little bit more weight than they should have because who knows who this guy is.
RP at 49 (emphasis added).
¶11 The trial court also found that, “[t]he officers d[id] not see Mr. Hopkins really do anything illegal. All they saw him do was hang up the telephone. There’s nothing wrong with being on the phone.” RP at 50.
¶12 But the trial court ultimately denied Hopkins’ suppression motion by concluding,
[T]here is more than just an anonymous tip... when they approach Mr. Hopkins, he was asked, and I think the officers had every right to ask him if he had a gun. He said, I might have a gun in my pocket.... That’s a statement from Mr. Hopkins that I think reasonably justifies them doing a little bit more.
RP at 49-50.
¶13 The trial court prefaced its oral ruling by noting, “I think maybe they [the officers] just assumed everything this guy told them, the tipster told them, was true. I don’t know [if] they should necessarily assume that, but I don’t think they did anything unreasonable here.” RP at 51.
¶14 Consequently, the trial court entered written findings of fact and conclusions of law that included, inter alia, the following two legal conclusions: “1. Law enforcement lawfully contacted and detained the defendant based on the information provided by a named 911 caller. 2. The defendant was properly patted down after he indicated to the officers that he might have a gun in his pocket.” CP at 176.
¶15 A jury found Hopkins guilty on all three counts, including the firearm enhancement. The trial court sentenced Hopkins to 60 months’ confinement.
Informant’s Tip
116 Hopkins argues that the trial court erred when it denied his suppression motion based on an unreliable informant’s tip to justify the officers’ investigatory stop. The State responds that citizen informants are generally presumed to be reliable and that an informant’s tip alleging unlawful firearm possession requires immediate police response.
A. Standard of Review
¶17 We review factual findings in a motion to suppress for substantial evidence; we review de novo the suppression order’s conclusions of law. State v. Duncan, 146 Wn.2d 166, 171, 43 P.3d 513 (2002); State v. Mendez, 137 Wn.2d 208, 214, 970 P.2d 722 (1999).
¶18 A warrantless, investigatory stop must be reasonable under the Fourth Amendment and article I, section 7 of the Washington State Constitution. Duncan, 146 Wn.2d at 171. The State must prove an investigatory stop’s reasonableness. Duncan, 146 Wn.2d at 171. An investigatory stop is reasonable if the arresting officer can attest to specific and objective facts that provide a reasonable suspicion that the person stopped has committed or is about to commit a crime. State v. Armenta, 134 Wn.2d 1,10, 948 P.2d 1280 (1997). An investigatory stop occurs at the moment when, given the incident’s circumstances, a reasonable person would not feel free to leave. Armenta, 134 Wn.2d at 10; State v. Williams, 102 Wn.2d 733, 739, 689 P.2d 1065 (1984).
¶19 An informant’s tip can provide police a reasonable suspicion to make an investigatory stop. State v. Sieler, 95 Wn.2d 43, 47, 621 P.2d 1272 (1980). But the informant’s tip must be reliable. Sieler, 95 Wn.2d at 47. The State establishes a tip’s reliability when “(1) the informant is reliable and (2) the informant’s tip contains enough objec
B. Informant’s Reliability
¶20 Generally, we may presume the reliability of a tip from a citizen informant. State v. Wakeley, 29 Wn. App. 238, 241, 628 P.2d 835 (1981). Here, the record demonstrates that at the time of the dispatch, the officers knew only that the informant was a citizen. Although the informant’s name and cell phone number appeared on the officers’ computer in their patrol car, they did not know the informant or the call’s circumstances.
¶21 The State emphasizes that a citizen informant is generally presumed reliable and that the informant called back a second time regarding the person’s location. But as discussed above, the informant’s name was meaningless to the officers and the mere fact that the informant called again to update the person’s location is unpersuasive. It may mean that the informant is watching the person, but it tells the officers nothing more about the informant’s reliability. Further, a named and unknown telephone informant is unreliable because “[s]uch an informant could easily fabricate an alias, and thereby remain, like an
¶22 We hold that the State failed to establish the informant’s reliability, thus it was reversible error to deny Hopkins’ suppression motion. Hart, 66 Wn. App. at 7-8. But we also review whether the informant’s tip included objective facts justifying the officers’ investigative stop of Hopkins.
C. Reliability of Informant’s Tip
¶23 The informant’s tip contained inaccurate information about Hopkins’ height, weight, and age, but the tip reasonably identified Hopkins’ clothing, other physical features, and location. The informant’s only allegation of criminal activity was that a minor was “scratching his leg” with “what appeared to be a gun,” and that he “thinks” the gun is in Hopkins’ right pocket. CP at 175; Pl.’s Ex. 1.
¶24 Citing Wakeley, the State emphasizes that the informant’s tip involves the potentially dangerous situation of unlawful firearm possession. 29 Wn. App. at 241. But in J.L., the Supreme Court rejected a similar argument, deciding that an automatic firearm exception to justify a
¶25 The trial court emphasized that it narrowly denied Hopkins’ suppression motion. The trial court seriously questioned the reliability of the informant’s tip and found that the officers did not observe illegal or suspicious behavior; however, it ultimately denied Hopkins’ suppression motion based on his statement to police after the investigatory stop.
¶26 But the trial court erred in considering Hopkins’ statement to police as justification of the investigatory stop because his statement occurred after the officers seized him. Before approaching Hopkins, the officers’ suspicion was based solely on the informant’s tip that described Hopkins’ appearance and age inaccurately, but accurately described his location, clothing, and backpacks only. They relied on the informant’s incorrect and vague assertion that Hopkins unlawfully possessed a gun as a minor and they did not observe any suspicious behavior. See, e.g., J.L, 529 U.S. at 271 (“The reasonableness of official suspicion must be measured by what the officers knew before they conducted their search. All the police had to go on in this case was the bare report of an unknown, unaccountable informant.”) (emphasis added). And immediately upon contact with the officers, Hopkins was not free to leave because the officers required Hopkins to put his hands in the air.
¶27 Under these circumstances, we hold that the informant’s tip alone failed to provide the officers a reasonable
¶28 Thus, we reverse the trial court’s denial of Hopkins’ suppression motion. Because the State’s case rested exclusively on the improperly seized evidence and his statements after the illegal stop, we vacate Hopkins’ convictions and dismiss the charges with prejudice.
Morgan, J., concurs.
Hopkins is 21 years old, six feet three inches tall, and weighs 200 pounds.
Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S. Ct. 1602, 16 L. Ed. 2d 694 (1966).
The State’s unlawful firearm possession charge was under ROW 9.41.040(1)(a) because of Hopkins’ prior convictions of a “serious offense.”
Hopkins does not challenge the trial court’s admissibility of his statements under CrR 3.5. The trial court’s decision under CrR 3.6 preceded the CrR 3.5 proceeding.
We note that the officers’ testimony at the suppression hearing indicates that, before the investigatory stop, they did not meaningfully review the incident report on the patrol car’s computer. Instead it appears the officers relied primarily on the information from the dispatcher that reported the defendant’s description and did not state the informant’s name.
One officer testified that the second call asserted the gun was in the right pocket, but the dispatch report provides that the caller thinks the gun is in the right pocket.
Dissenting Opinion
¶29
(dissenting) — This appeal presents the following question: Is it reasonable for police to consider a citizen report of a crime in progress reliable, as opposed to a mischievous prank, when an individual calls 911 to report what he apparently believes is a crime, gives his name, location, and phone number, and then calls back with another phone number to tell police the suspect’s exact location? The majority says no. Because I believe that this answer is wrong and can serve only to undermine effective law enforcement and 911’s usefulness, I respectfully dissent.
¶30 The tip from 911 caller Roger Bratsch was sufficient to justify a Terry
¶32 The reasonableness of the police conduct here hinges on whether Bratsch was credible. An informant’s credibility turns on the reasonableness of concluding, under the totality of the circumstances, that the informant is not a fallacious troublemaker or one relying on casual rumor or irresponsible conjecture. State v. Northness, 20 Wn. App. 551, 556-57, 582 P.2d 546 (1978). This threshold is greatly relaxed when the informant is an identifiable and disinterested citizen, as opposed to an anonymous or professional informant. Florida v. J.L., 529 U.S. 266, 270, 120 S. Ct. 1375, 146 L. Ed. 2d 254 (2000); State v. Cole, 128 Wn.2d 262, 287, 906 P.2d 925 (1995). An informant who puts his anonymity at risk “must, as a general matter, be thought
¶33 The facts of this case closely mirror those in United States v. Terry-Crespo, 356 F.3d 1170 (9th Cir. 2004). There, an individual called 911 to report that he had been threatened with a gun by a young Hispanic male dressed in gang clothing and carrying a backpack. The person gave his name but no phone number and he indicated that he did not want police to contact him. Based on this tip alone, the police stopped and eventually arrested Terry-Crespo.
¶34 On appeal, Terry-Crespo argued, like Hopkins does here, that the police did not have a basis to believe that the 911 caller was credible. The Ninth Circuit disagreed:
Mr. Domingis’s 911 call prior to the Terry stop was entitled to greater reliability than a tip concerning general criminality because the police must take 911 emergency calls seriously and respond with dispatch.... Police delay while attempting to verify an identity or seek corroboration of a reported emergency may prove costly to public safety and undermine the 911 system’s usefulness .... The touchstone of our search and seizure jurisprudence remains the Fourth Amendment’s textual requirement that any search be “reasonable,” a determination we make by weighing the competing interests of individual security and privacy with the need to promote legitimate governmental interests. Having weighed those interests, we conclude that it is reasonable to accommodate the public’s need for a prompt police response ....
[Also], the fact that Mr. Domingis risked any anonymity he might have enjoyed and exposed himself to legal sanction further supports the tip’s reliability .... Mr. Domingis jeopar*869 dized any anonymity he might have had by calling 911 and providing his name to an operator during a recorded call.... Merely calling 911 and having a recorded telephone conversation risks the possibility that the police could trace the call or identify Mr. Domingis by his voice. Moreover, the district court could consider the 911 call reliable because Mr. Domingis risked criminal sanction for any false report to police.
Terry-Crespo, 356 F.3d at 1176 (citations omitted). In addition, the court also noted that the police could place additional reliability on the tip because it evidenced firsthand information that was only a few minutes old. Terry-Crespo, 356 F.3d at 1176-77.
¶35 I find persuasive the Ninth Circuit’s conclusion that 911 calls have a heightened reliability. This conclusion is shared elsewhere.
¶36 This status for 911 calls is consistent with the permitted consideration of a tipster’s state of mind in assessing credibility. See State v. Lair, 95 Wn.2d 706, 710, 630 P.2d 427 (1981) (“[E]ven if nothing is known about the informant, the facts and circumstances under which the information is furnished may reasonably support an inference that the informant is telling the truth.”). We consider credibility to be enhanced when an informant’s tip is against his own penal interest. State v. Estorga, 60 Wn. App. 298, 304, 803 P.2d 813, review denied, 116 Wn.2d 1027 (1991). Similarly, police may also consider whether the informant is under arrest, for one who knows the police are already in a position to charge him with a serious crime will not lightly undertake to divert the police down blind alleys. State v. O’Connor, 39 Wn. App. 113, 121, 692 P.2d 208 (1984), review denied, 103 Wn.2d 1022 (1985). Like these factors, an individual’s decision to use 911 in reporting his tip enhances his credibility because he knows that he can be tracked down and prosecuted if he provides misinformation.
¶ 37 By ignoring Bratsch’s means for communicating his tip, the majority also undermines the 911 system. The majority suggests that the responding officers should have investigated Bratsch before relying on his tips. But police delay while attempting to verify or corroborate a 911 emergency tip of an armed minor on a public street is, in my view, unreasonable and likely to prove costly to public safety and the 911 system’s usefulness. Terry-Crespo, 356 F.3d at 1176. The constitution "is not a suicide pact”
¶38 Here, Bratsch called 911, and gave dispatch his name, phone number, and location. Although Bratsch stated a preference not to be involved, his 911 calls demonstrated serious concern for public safety and an implicit understanding that he would be involved if necessary. Williams, 241 Wis. 2d at 649. I also note that Bratsch’s tip was not generic: He specifically described Hopkins and stated that Hopkins was using a gun to scratch his leg. O’Connor, 39 Wn. App. at 122 (“[T]he amount and kind of detailed information given by an informant may also enhance his reliability.”). Perhaps most significantly, Bratsch demonstrated his own concern for public safely by following Hopkins so he could keep police apprised of Hopkins’s location. Bratsch’s decisions to make a second call to 911 from another traceable number and to follow an individual he saw carrying a gun only added to the inference that he was acting as an ordinary and concerned citizen. In my opinion, under the facts of this case, the police reasonably believed that Bratsch was reliably recounting criminal activity in progress, and they acted accordingly in stopping Hopkins to investigate.
¶39 For these reasons, I dissent.
Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S. Ct. 1868, 20 L. Ed. 2d 889 (1968).
Tobacco retailers generally request identification well after an individual turns 18.
See, e.g., United States v. Quarles, 330 F.3d 650, 654-56 (4th Cir.), cert. denied, 540 U.S. 9779 (2003); United States v. Wheat, 278 F.3d 722, 735-36 (8th Cir. 2001), cert. denied, 537 U.S. 850 (2002); State v. Gomez, 198 Ariz. 61, 64, 6 P.3d 765 (Ct. App. 2000); Jordan, 121 Cal. App. 4th at 561; State v. Golotta, 178 N.J. 205, 218-19, 837 A.2d 359 (2003); People v. Dixon, 734 N.Y.S.2d 761, 762, 289 A.D.2d 937 (2001); State v. Williams, 2001 WI 21, 241 Wis. 2d 631, 649, 651, 667-78, 623 N.W.2d 106, cert. denied, 534 U.S. 949.
Kennedy v. Mendoza-Martinez, 372 U.S. 144, 160, 83 S. Ct. 554, 9 L. Ed. 2d 644 (1963).