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Commonwealth v. Seng4/23/2002
g about recent rape merely "caught his eye," "it would be unreasonable to say he could not legally notice what he was seeing in open view"). See also D'Antorio v. State, 926 P.2d 1158, 1165 (Alaska 1996) (detailed reading of papers found in inventory search of defendant's car violates reasonable expectation of privacy and cannot be sustained under inventory exception, but reading and listing names and numbers on credit cards seized during inventory was reasonable to protect property and to protect police against claims of lost or stolen property, and "this information declares itself on sight" to inventory officer).
The United States Supreme Court has also struggled with this issue. See South Dakota v. Opperman, 428 U.S. 364 (1976) (five- to-four decision), and especially the oft-quoted language of Justice Powell id. at 380 n.7 (Powell, J., concurring): "As part of their inventory search the police may discover materials such as letters or checkbooks that 'touch upon intimate areas of an individual's personal affairs,' and 'reveal much about a person's activities, associations, and beliefs.' . . . In this case the police found, inter alia, 'miscellaneous papers,' a checkbook, an installment loan book, and a social security status card. . . . There is, however, no evidence in the record that in carrying out their established inventory duties the police do other than search for and remove for storage such property without examining its contents." (Citations omitted.) One commentator has stated that the Opperman case "quite conclusively indicates that a majority of the Court would not approve of such a practice [examination of personal papers] as part of the routine vehicle inventory process." 3 LaFave, Searches & Seizures, 7.4(a), at 560 (3d ed. 1996). More recently, the United States Supreme Court has stated: "The individual police officer must not be allowed so much latitude that inventory searches are turned into 'a purposeful and general means of discovering evidence of crime.'" Florida v. Wells, 495 U.S. 1, 4 (1990), quoting Colorado v. Bertine, 479 U.S. 367, 376 (1987) (Blackmun, J., concurring).
Finally, the American Law Institute Model Code of Pre-Arraignment Procedure 530 (1975), provides: "Generally speaking, none of [the legitimate purposes of a custodial search] will justify reading the accused's papers, except for the limited purposes specified in subsection (2) [of Section SS 230.6]." Subsection 2 of Section SS 230.6 states in part: "Documents or other records may be read or otherwise examined only to the extent necessary for such [custodial] purposes, including identity checking and ensuring the arrestee's physical well-being." Id. at 146. See Commonwealth v. Sullo, supra at 769.
Applying the principles distinguishing an inventory from an investigative search to the facts before us, the information on the front of the bank card, that it is a Shawmut bank card, declares its nature to anyone at sight. The account numbers written on the back of the card are not as obvious and would not be recalled simply from a permissible inventory viewing. "What the police may not do is hunt for information by sifting and reading materials taken from an arrestee which do not so declare themselves." Id. at 770. Nor would there be any need for the police to record the account numbers on an inventory list, given that this particular card was of no value. Contrast D'Antorio v. State, supra. Recording this information would not serve any of the generally accepted objectives of an inventory search preceding incarceration.
The information on the back of the card was not overtly incriminating. It most likely became useful as an investigative tool at a later point during the inves
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