People v. Dixon

222 N.W.2d 749, 392 Mich. 691, 1974 Mich. LEXIS 205
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 30, 1974
Docket12 April Term 1974, Docket No. 54,284
StatusPublished
Cited by92 cases

This text of 222 N.W.2d 749 (People v. Dixon) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Dixon, 222 N.W.2d 749, 392 Mich. 691, 1974 Mich. LEXIS 205 (Mich. 1974).

Opinions

Levin, J.

Herman Lester Dixon appeals his conviction of unlawful possession of a narcotic drug.1

Dixon was arrested for a traffic offense and searched at the scene; nothing was found. Heroin was discovered during a search at the police station. Contending that both his arrest and the search were illegal, Dixon moved before and at trial to suppress the heroin.

The Court of Appeals, in holding that Dixon was validly arrested, "adopt[ed] the following rules”:

"A police officer may arrest without a warrant for a misdemeanor if the misdemeanor was actually committed in the officer’s presence or if, from personal observations, the officer has reason to believe that a misdemeanor was committed in his presence. A police officer has reason to believe that a misdemeanor has been or is being committed in his presence if the circumstances observed by him would lead a reasonable person to conclude that he was witnessing the commission of a misdemeanor by the person arrested.”2

We agree with the Court of Appeals that Dixon’s arrest was valid, not because a police officer may arrest for the commission of a misdemeanor on [696]*696probable cause — he may not — but because the misdemeanor was committed in the arresting officer’s "presence.”3 We, nevertheless, reverse Dixon’s conviction because the search at the police station was in derogation of his statutory right to bail.

I

Two State Police officers stopped the automobile Dixon was driving at about 3 a.m. because they thought the vehicle was making excessive noise and suspected a faulty muffler.4 When Dixon produced his driver’s license, one of the officers observed a second license in his wallet which aroused his suspicion and caused him to radio headquarters. He was advised that Dixon’s license had been suspended. Dixon was then arrested for operating a motor vehicle with a suspended license.5 A contemporaneous frisk revealed no weapon and he was transported to the county jail.

A statute authorizes a peace officer to make a warrantless arrest for "any felony or misdemeanor committed in his presence.” It also authorizes warrantless arrests for a felony on probable cause and in certain other circumstances, but there is no authorization for a warrantless arrest for a misdemeanor whether on probable cause or on any other basis unless it was "committed in his presence.”6

Dixon argues that the arrest was invalid because the officer "did not learn from his own senses” that Dixon was committing a misdemeanor. Knowledge of a necessary element of the offense [697]*697was not gained from the officer’s "personal observation” but from a hearsay radio report.

In holding that the police could arrest on probable cause ("such information as would lead a reasonable person to conclude”), the Court of Appeals noted several jurisdictions in which "a police officer may properly arrest without a warrant if he has probable cause to believe from personal observations that a misdemeanor has been committed in his presence.”7 All but one of these cases were civil actions against the arresting police officer. In the lone criminal case cited by the Court of Appeals, State v DelVecchio, 149 Conn 567; 182 A2d 402 (1962), the statement was dictum; the Court held that the arrest was not lawful.

At common law a police officer was authorized to arrest without a warrant for a misdemeanor only when it constituted a breach of the peace and the breach occurred in his presence.8 Most states, including Michigan, have abandoned the breach of the peace limitation. Some have also authorized warrantless arrests for misdemeanors on probable cause. But a large number of states, like Michigan, have retained the presence requirement.9

Whatever may have been its historical origins, we perceive the principal present day importance of the presence requirement to be that a police officer may not utilize information received from third persons as a basis for a warrantless misdemeanor arrest. When the basis of the officer’s belief that the defendant has committed a misdemeanor is information imparted to him by, say, [698]*698victims, witnesses or informers, he must present the evidence to a magistrate and seek an arrest warrant. He may not act on his own appraisal of the reasonableness of the information.

Another police officer is not a third person within that policy. Courts in other, jurisdictions have developed a "police team” qualification of the presence requirement, permitting officers who are working together on a case to combine their collective perceptions so that if the composite otherwise satisfies the presence requirement that requirement is deemed satisfied although the arresting officer does not himself witness all the elements of the offense.10

In this case the arresting officer saw Dixon driving a vehicle. Another officer examined the official records which showed that his license was suspended. Their combined information satisfies, in our opinion, the purpose and policy of the presence requirement.

We recognize that the official record is in a sense hearsay. It would not, however, be in accord with reason to deny police officers the power to act on information of this kind officially compiled in a public record.

The only person who might know of his own knowledge whether Dixon’s license was suspended was Dixon himself. He alone was likely to know whether an order of suspension had been entered and remained in force and effect. But even his perceptions may have been mistaken as, not being a lawyer and probably not having examined all the pertinent records, he could not be entirely sure of his official status.

In point of fact, about the only way to establish whether a person’s operator’s license is suspended [699]*699at a given moment is to conduct a judicial hearing at which all persons who have been involved in proceedings to suspend and to reinstate could testify and an adjudication could be made; but even that would be subject to appeal.

We hold that in deciding whether to arrest for the misdemeanor of driving without an operator’s license, a police officer may properly rely on information obtained by radio from another police officer who is examining an official record, that such information becomes part of the arresting officer’s knowledge which he can consider in deciding whether a law violation has occurred in his presence.

We reiterate that this qualification should not be read as justifying warrantless misdemeanor arrests on other "reasonable” or "dependable” information. We especially emphasize that police officers may not arrest on information obtained from persons who are not police officers, e.g., victims, witnesses and informers or on the basis of information obtained from a police officer who is relying on information obtained from a person who is not a police officer.

II

Upon arrival at the jail, Dixon was ordered into a small room and there directed by one of the officers and the jail turnkey to remove his sweater. The turnkey’s investigation of the sweater’s pocket revealed several small packets wrapped in tissue paper.

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Bluebook (online)
222 N.W.2d 749, 392 Mich. 691, 1974 Mich. LEXIS 205, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-dixon-mich-1974.