SAN DIEGO DISTRICT ATTORNEY The Fourth Amendment and ...

oad enough to affect a police officer’s contacts with individuals
on the street.
And note P.C. § 833.5, providing a peace officer the authority to detain
for investigation anyone who the officer has “reasonable cause” to believe
illegally has in his or her possession a firearm or other deadly weapon.
Also, P.C. § 12031(e) gives a peace officer the right to inspect a firearm
carried by any person on his person or in a vehicle “on any public street in
an incorporated city or prohibited area of an unincorporated territory.”
Refusal to allow a peace officer to inspect a firearm is probable cause to
arrest the subject for violating P.C. § 12031(a)(1); illegally carrying a
loaded firearm in the listed public places.
Detention Examples, in General:
After questioning a person at an airport, a detention was held to be lawful
where the name given to police was different than that put on checked
luggage, with no documentary proof of identity, while traveling to a
faraway city known for receiving narcotics, plus other suspicious
circumstances. (People v. Daugherty (1996) 50 Cal.App.4 th 275.)
Carrying an ax on a bicycle at 3:00 a.m. is reasonable suspicion of
criminal activity justifying a detention for investigation. (People v.
Foranyic (1998) 64 Cal.App.4 th 186.)
Detaining a person on school grounds for purposes of investigating the
lawfulness of his presence there, as an “administrative search,” is lawful.
(In re Joseph F. (2000) 83 Cal.App.4 th 501.)
An Anchorage, Alaska, Municipal Code ordinance forbidding any item
affixed to the windshield (similar to California’s V.C. § 26708(a)(1); see
People v. White (2003) 107 Cal.App.4 th 636.) was not violated by an air
freshener dangling from the rear view mirror. A traffic stop was found to
be illegal. (United States v. King (9 th Cir. 2001) 244 F.3 rd 736, 740.)
A traffic stop for a violation of V.C. § 26708(a) was held to be
illegal in People v. White, supra., where insufficient evidence was
presented in court of an obstruction of the driver’s view caused by
an air freshener dangling from the rearview mirror, but legal in
People v. Colbert (2007) 157 Cal.App.4 th 1068, where the officer
was able to testify why he believed the driver’s view was
obstructed by the same type of object and the defense failed to
present any evidence to the contrary.
© 2012 Robert C. Phillips. All rights reserved
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