Caruso v. Ward

133 Misc. 2d 544, 2 I.E.R. Cas. (BNA) 238, 506 N.Y.S.2d 789, 1986 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2908
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 1, 1986
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 133 Misc. 2d 544 (Caruso v. Ward) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Caruso v. Ward, 133 Misc. 2d 544, 2 I.E.R. Cas. (BNA) 238, 506 N.Y.S.2d 789, 1986 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2908 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1986).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

Stanley Parness, J.

Petitioner, as president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association (PBA), and in behalf of its membership, seeks an order permanently enjoining respondents, New York City Police Department (Department), Police Commissioner (Commissioner) and City of New York (City) from implementing that portion of the Department’s interim order No. 36 which would require current and future members of the Department’s Organized Crime Control Bureau (OCCB) to consent and submit to future random drug testing. Petitioner’s collateral application is for a temporary stay pending a resolution of the improper practice petition filed by petitioner with the New York City Bureau of Collective Bargaining concerning the same order No. 36.

PBA is the duly recognized bargaining agent for all members of the New York City Police Department having the rank of police officer and the application is made on behalf of those members currently assigned to the Organized Crime Control Bureau and those who subsequently may come into the Bureau.

The Organized Crime Control Bureau is a division within the Police Department which focuses on narcotics, gambling, prostitution and other forms of organized crime. Service in the Bureau is voluntary and within the Department’s discretion. The Bureau has some 1,200 officers who usually serve four-year tours. To many, it is a desired assignment presenting a path to advancement within the Department.

On June 2, 1986, respondent Department issued interim order No. 36, which in effect provides that applicants to and current members of the OCCB will be required to sign a form which advises them as a condition of initial and continued assignment to the Bureau that they will be required to consent to periodic random drug testing. Essentially, this would require each member, on demand, to submit a urine sample for Dole test analysis. This may take place at any time and is applicable to all officers of any rank within the Bureau.

Order No. 36 also provides that current members of OCCB who choose not to execute such forms and subject themselves to random testing will be transferred out of the Bureau [546]*546without penalty or loss of rank. Once, however, such consent is signed, refusal to comply with the order would result in disciplinary action by the Department. Any officer after testing who demonstrated positive test findings may be subjected to disciplinary action.

Prior to the issuance of order No. 36, all members of the Department were subject to interim order No. 13 which required submission to Dole testing where there was a "reasonable belief’ that the suspect officer was using drugs. PBA does not contest the right of the Department to have drug testing as part of the screening process of applicants to the Department or any of its bureaus including OCCB. Nor is there objection made to testing as part of a health checkup or where a member is actually suspected of drug use. What is objected to is the elimination in interim order No. 36 of the "reasonable belief’ requirement previously set forth in interim order No. 13. Such elimination in effect would require OCCB members to submit to periodic random testing at the Department’s sole discretion, while testing of other members of the Department remains subject to the "reasonable belief’ requirement of interim order No. 13. This, petitioner contends, violates OCCB members’ constitutional rights under the 4th and 14th Amendments.

The 4th Amendment states that: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons * * * against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” Its purpose, thus, is to protect against arbitrary and oppressive governmental action and to thereby protect persons from unreasonable intrusion into their reasonable and legitimate expectations of privacy. (United States v Chadwick, 433 US 1, 7 [1977]; Bell v Wolfish, 441 US 520, 588 [1979]; Terry v Ohio, 392 US 1, 9 [1968].) The proscriptions of the 4th Amendment are made applicable to the States through the 14th Amendment (Camara v Municipal Ct., 387 US 523, 528; Ker v California, 374 US 23.)

Our first inquiry, therefore, is whether compulsory employee urine testing constitutes a search which may be subject to 4th Amendment constraints.

Clearly, a person has a legitimate expectancy of privacy in his own body and a right to be free of government intervention therein. Thus, taking blood from the body constitutes a [547]*547search and seizure within the meaning of the 4th Amendment (Schmerber v California, 384 US 757, 766 [1966]). Though urine, unlike blood, is routinely discharged from the body so that no actual break in the body surface is required for its extraction, it is discharged in such manner and disposed of in such circumstance in which one clearly has a reasonable and legitimate expectation of privacy. Obviously, one does not expect that he will be made to discharge urine so that it can be analyzed in order to discover the personal physiological secrets it may hold. Thus, as with blood, there is an expectation of privacy concerning the "information” body fluids may hold. Accordingly, it has been uniformly held that compulsory urine testing constitutes a search and seizure within the meaning of the 4th Amendment. (Storms v Coughlin, 600 F Supp 1214, 1218 [SDNY 1984]; McDonell v Hunter, 612 F Supp 1122, 1127 [1985]; City of Palm Bay v Bauman, 475 So 2d 1322 [Fla App 1985]; Allen v City of Marietta, 601 F Supp 482, 488-489 [ND Ga 1985].)

However, not all searches and seizures are prohibited by the 4th Amendment. Only unreasonable intrusions are proscribed (Carroll v United States, 267 US 132, 147 [1925]). What must be determined is whether the intrusions contained in interim order No. 36 are, nevertheless, reasonable and thus not violative of the 4th Amendment.

"Reasonableness” is not susceptible of precise definition but must be determined in each case by balancing the degree of intrusion of the search on the person’s 4th Amendment right of privacy against the need for the search to promote some legitimate governmental interest (Katz v United States, 389 US 347, 351 [1967]; Terry v Ohio, supra; Illinois v Lafayette, 462 US 640 [1983]).

Viewed in this context, we must determine whether the degree or scope of intrusiveness occasioned by compelling members of OCCB to submit samples for urine analysis is justified by an overriding governmental interest which will be promoted thereby.

The first factor in the reasonableness test, the degree of intrusiveness, is a relative term. A person’s perception as to the scope or degree of any governmental intrusion is ordinarily dependent upon what his legitimate expectancy of privacy is in the area intruded upon. (Katz v United States, supra, p 361.) As noted, a person has a legitimate expectancy of privacy in his body fluids. And, as with blood testing, compulsory [548]*548urine testing has been held sufficiently intrusive to warrant protection under the 4th and 14th Amendments (Storms v Coughlin, supra).

Indeed, compelling argument can be made that the urine testing contemplated under interim order No. 36 presents an even greater intrusion on privacy than does blood testing.

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Bluebook (online)
133 Misc. 2d 544, 2 I.E.R. Cas. (BNA) 238, 506 N.Y.S.2d 789, 1986 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2908, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/caruso-v-ward-nysupct-1986.