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Commonwealth v. Lehman3/24/2003
that on certain occasions, in the course of performing his duties, a police officer may cross jurisdictional lines. 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 8953. "We must construe this Act liberally to effectuate its objectives and promote justice. Any other interpretation of the Act, given the facts presented, would not be in keeping with the legislative intent of the Act as espoused by our Supreme Court in [Commonwealth v. Merchant, 528 Pa. 161, 595 A.2d 1135 (1991)]." Commonwealth v. Eisenfelder, 664 A.2d 151, 154 (Pa.Super. 1995) (citation omitted).
8 The section of the Act relied upon by the Commonwealth for its argument that an officer may cross jurisdictional lines when on official business follows:
(5) Where the officer is on official business and views an offense, or has probable cause to believe that an offense has been committed, and makes a reasonable effort to identify himself as a police officer and which offense is a felony, misdemeanor, breach of the peace or other act which presents an immediate clear and present danger to persons or property. 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 8953(a)(5) (emphasis added).
The Commonwealth's "official business" argument is part and parcel of a conjunctive standard that includes at least one of the previously stated elements; (1) having observed a crime or (2) having reason to believe a crime has been or is being committed. Reading this section of the Act in its entirety, Officer Wagner's actions may be construed as being in violation of the Act; there was no "offense" witnessed by Officer Wagner, nor did he have reason to believe one had been committed.
9 While arguably appellant is correct, Officer Wagner did cross the county line without having "seen" a crime being committed or believing a crime to have been committed, thereby exceeding his legal jurisdiction, he did so in response to what he feared was a medical emergency. He acted in his official capacity to assure a citizen's well being, an affirmative duty imposed upon him by virtue of his position as a public servant. Had Officer Wagner knowingly and intentionally ignored the citizen's report due to a line on a map, not only would he have been considered morally derelict, in today's society he would have opened himself up to a possible lawsuit. Once Officer Wagner ascertained or suspected appellant was intoxicated, his concern and responsibility rightfully turned toward the general public and included, we are confident, an intent to keep an impaired driver off the roadways. He notified the proper authorities, that being the Pennsylvania State Police, and in response to their request, stood by and awaited their arrival. While in the interim, appellant and Officer Wagner "chitchatted" and appellant performed informal field sobriety tests at the request of Officer Wagner, the results of these tests were not admitted into evidence and, as stated above, when the State Police officers arrived they assumed control of the investigation. The officers independently observed appellant's obvious intoxicated state, elicited an admission appellant was indeed drinking, and conducted an official field sobriety test, which appellant failed. It was only then that appellant was arrested.
10 That being said, we also find that despite Officer Wagner's arguable foray into a county not within his jurisdiction, thereby exceeding his authority, appellant's intoxicated state inevitably would have been discovered by the State Police who assumed responsibility for the investigation upon notification by Officer Wagner. It is on this basis, of the "doctrine of inevitable discovery", that we find appellant's challenge to the suppression court's ruling must fail.
11 The inevitable discovery doctrine,
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