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Lancaster v. State3/28/2002
easonable suspicion that criminal activity was afoot. 914 P.2d at 808. See also Collins v. State, 854 P.2d at 695 (a detention based on reasonable suspicion can, through the development of additional facts during the investigation, evolve into probable cause for arrest).
Although we have not previously considered whether the use of intrusive measures as invoked in this case transforms an investigatory stop into an arrest, with regard to officer safety we have recently said:
"Nothing written here should be cited for the proposition that proper regard for officer safety might run police afoul of an arrestee's constitutional rights. The concerns for officer safety articulated by Terry [v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968)] have only increased exponentially over the years." Mickelson v. State, 906 P.2d 1020, 1023 (Wyo.1995). Brown, 944 P.2d at 1171-72.
[ ] A somewhat similar situation occurred in Wilson v. State, 874 P.2d 215 (Wyo. 1994), but with a different result. A police officer observed Wilson shortly after midnight walking along a street. Wilson was walking rapidly, but with "lurching" steps. The officer pulled his patrol car up near Wilson and asked if he was okay. Smelling alcohol on Wilson's breath, the officer asked Wilson for identification, which Wilson provided. Pursuant to department policy, the officer then radioed for a routine warrants check, which took less than two minutes. The encounter with Wilson was interrupted when the officer saw smoke coming from a nearby building. The officer went to investigate, telling Wilson to "stay in the area." Wilson, 874 P.2d at 217.
[ ] After directing fire trucks to the fire, the officer returned to find Wilson. He helped Wilson cross the street, and then once again asked him to wait while he checked on the fire. As the officer worked traffic control at the fire, he received a radio report that Wilson had two outstanding arrest warrants. The officer went back to Wilson's location, told him about the warrants, and arrested him. In the process, the officer noticed an oily patch on Wilson's shirt. The officer touched the stained area, at which time Wilson said, "What are you doing? I don't smell like smoke." The next day, while in custody on the existing warrants, Wilson made voluntary incriminating statements about the fire. Wilson, 874 P.2d at 217-18.
[ ] The district court denied Wilson's motion to suppress the evidence obtained after the officer's initial stop of Wilson. On appeal, this Court reversed, holding that, while the officer's initial contacts with Wilson were legal as part of the officer's "community caretaker" function, the continued detention of Wilson thereafter for the purpose of running a National Crime Information Center (NCIC) records check, in the absence of reasonable suspicion of illegal activity, was an illegal seizure under the Fourth Amendment. Wilson, 874 P.2d at 220-26.
[ ] The lesson to be learned from these cases is that resolution of a search and seizure issue in the context of an investigatory stop that becomes an arrest requires application of a totality of the circumstances test. Martindale v. State, 2001 WY 52, 11, 24 P.3d 1138, 1141 (Wyo. 2001); Buckles v. State, 998 P.2d 927, 930 (Wyo. 2000). The same test must be used in cases such as Wilson and Morris and the instant case, where the initial contact with the defendant did not arise out of an investigatory stop, but was initiated out of concern for the defendant's welfare. When an officer observes conduct that suggests a person may be injured or otherwise in need of assistance, the officer's community caretaker function allows him to contact that person regardless of the lack of any articulable suspicion of c
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