Page 35 - TPA Journal November December 2022

then have access to any weapons inside.” That All of those factors could have contributed to a
logic controls even if the suspect has been reasonable belief on the part of the officers that
handcuffed. they were in danger and could take steps to protect
themselves. Rodriguez counters that there are
While Gant searches and Long searches are both insufficient factual findings to assess the validity of
justified by the interest in officer safety, they are a protective sweep, and so remand is appropriate.
nonetheless distinct. Long searches are premised on We disagree. In the absence of formal fact findings
the possibility that a suspect might return to a justifying the denial of a motion to suppress,
vehicle, but Gant searches occur when a suspect is remand may be appropriate where the record
being placed under arrest and is therefore unlikely provides a basis to doubt the district court’s
to return to the vehicle. Long’s roots lie not in the decision, such as a mistaken legal assumption or
search-incident-to-arrest exception but, instead, in express refusal to resolve certain facts. But
the framework established by Terry v. Ohio. Thus, “ordinarily,” we affirm if the evidence in the record
post-Gant decisions of this court have continued to allows us to do so, as it does here. Though the
apply Long, including to situations in which a district court did not specifically identify the above
suspect is handcuffed at the time of the search. points as factual findings, Rodriguez has not
expressly disputed any of them. The fact findings
The officers did not arrest Rodriguez until they had the district court did make do not suggest that it
discovered the gun. To be lawful, a search of his doubted the officers’ credibility or that it was
property would thus have to have been a Long deliberately avoiding the question of danger. We
search rather than a Gant search. For a Long search thus adopt the ordinary course and look to evidence
to be valid, an officer must have “a reasonable outside the formal fact findings to affirm the
suspicion that the person poses a danger and may judgment. Rather than challenge facts indicating
gain immediate control of weapons.” That the situation’s dangerousness, Rodriguez seeks to
suspicion must be based on “specific and rebut the protective-sweep theory by questioning
articulable facts.” whether he could have taken control of the weapon
in the car. He states that when the sweep occurred,
Our precedents have identified several “there was no realistic possibility that either
circumstances that can help clear that bar. Most [Rodriguez or the driver] . . . would have been
relevant here, “[t]hat a person is stooping down and permitted to reenter the [vehicle] at any point
moving from side to side in the front seat of an during the encounter.” To be sure, the driver was
automobile may form the basis of [a] reasonable already known to have been driving without a
belief” that he is armed and dangerous. license and to have a fake ID, so even if he had not
The officers observed both Rodriguez and the been formally arrested when the search occurred,
driver moving within their seats apparently in the police could have expected that he soon would
response to the presence of police. Rodriguez was be. But Rodriguez could easily have returned to the
shifting “[a]s if [he was] removing a jacket.” That car. As the district court found, he had only been
observation alone was in the direction of creating a detained, not arrested. Though police were later
reasonable suspicion that Rodriguez was forced to impound the vehicle, at the time of the
concealing a weapon, thereby justifying a Long search they still hoped to release it to the driver’s
search before Rodriguez was released. And there wife. Until the gun was found, there was no reason
are more facts pointing in the same direction. The to doubt that Rodriguez (though he did not have a
vehicle passed other driveways and stopped in an driver’s license) would soon be allowed to return to
apartment complex associated with gang activity. the car as a passenger and drive away. Rodriguez
Once within that complex, it continued to roll responds that by that point, the “encounter”
forward rather than stop immediately. The driver between him and law enforcement would be over,
initially opened his door as the officers approached. obviating any concern for officer safety. But an

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