Inventory Search| Chicago and Northwest suburbs

People v. Gipson February 21, 2003

Appellate citation: No. 1-99-1811 (unpublished order under Supreme Court
Rule 23). Opinion by THOMAS, J.

This Cook County defendant was charged with possession of cocaine with
intent to deliver. Rocks of cocaine in plastic bags tied shut were
found in the trunk of his car.

In 1998, a police officer stopped the defendant in Chicago for driving
on a revoked license. At the hearing on the defendant's motion to
suppress the contraband, the officer testified that an unlicensed person
cannot be permitted to just drive on in such circumstances. The
standard policy is to tow and impound the vehicle and also to make an
inventory search of it. This search revealed the drugs. The defendant
complained that the State produced no written documentation of its
purported policy on inventory searches. The circuit court granted the
motion to suppress and the appellate court affirmed.

In this opinion, the supreme court disagreed with the courts below and
reversed the suppression order. It found sufficient the testimony given
by the officer as to substance of the inventory policy. The defense had
neither cross-examined the officer nor rebutted his testimony. The
supreme court noted that an inventory search of a lawfully impounded
vehicle is a judicially created exception to the warrant requirement of
the fourth amendment.

The defendant also complained that the policy testified to by the
policeman had not specified that closed containers could be opened. The
supreme court rejected this argument, stating that an official policy
requiring an inventory of vehicle contents is sufficient to allow the
opening of closed containers.

The defendant failed to meet his burden on the motion to suppress. The
cause was remanded for further proceedings on the charge against him.