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Colorado v. Bertine | 479 U.S. 367 (1987)

In South Dakota versus Opperman, the United States Supreme Court held that the Fourth Amendment permits police officers to conduct a warrantless inventory search of a detained person’s automobile in anticipation of towing the vehicle to a police impoundment lot. But does such an inventory search include opening closed containers inside the vehicle? The Supreme Court addressed this issue in Colorado versus Bertine.

An officer in Boulder, Colorado, arrested Steven Bertine for driving while under the influence of alcohol. The officer called a tow truck to take Bertine’s vehicle to an impoundment lot. Before it was towed away, another officer, pursuant to the Boulder Police Department’s procedures, conducted an inventory search. The officer opened a closed backpack inside the vehicle. Inside it, he found cocaine and methaqualone, drug paraphernalia, and $910 in cash.

A state prosecutor charged Bertine with driving while under the influence of alcohol and also felony drug offenses. Bertine moved to suppress the evidence found during the inventory search on the ground that the warrantless search of the backpack violated the Fourth Amendment. The trial court found that the officer’s search of the backpack was done in good faith pursuant to established departmental procedures allowing all closed containers inside a car to be opened during an inventory search, but nevertheless suppressed the drug evidence. On the State’s pretrial appeal, the Colorado Supreme Court affirmed, concluding that the Fourth Amendment doesn’t permit warrantless inventory searches of closed containers inside a vehicle. The court concluded that before inspecting the contents of a closed container, officers must weigh the strength of the car owner’s privacy interest in the container against the possibility that the container might contain a valuable or dangerous item required to be inventoried.

The State successfully petitioned the United States Supreme Court to review Bertine’s case.

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