State v. Ching’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

32 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 37 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The police may also search lost property if necessary to safeguard the property, protect the police department from false claims, and protect the police from danger (for example, a bomb planted in “lost property”). These three interests, however, are not as strong in the present case as they are in a post-arrest situation such as [Illinois v. Lafayette, 462 U.S. 640 , 103 S.Ct. 2605 , 77 L.Ed.2d 65 (1983)]. Safeguarding lost property while in police hands is a valid State interest but the possibility that it might contain something valuable is much less likely than in the post-arrest context because any valuables are often already missing by the time the lost article is given to the police. Protection of the police from false claims is also less vital in the lost property context. Unlike the post-arrest situation, a person making a false claim that the police have mishandled lost property is faced with proving that the allegedly missing property was taken by police rather than by an original finder. Moreover, prudently sealing the property will protect" the police against false claims; when the police handle lost property as gratuitous bailees for the benefit of the owner they are liable only for acts of gross negligence or bad faith. Lopes v. Brito, 7 Haw. 679, 681 (1889). Finally, it is rare that lost property will pose a threat to the safety of the police or others, unlike the property of an arrestee. Because the need to search for valuable or dangerous contents is usually”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. State v. Kossman

2. “An arrestee's property can be sufficiently protected simply by placing it in a `property bag' ... However benevolent the state's intentions in this regard, [the protection of valuables] cannot serve as a justification for a general search of the arrestee's possessions. .... [T]he state, as an involuntary bailee, has `only a `slight' duty of care' with respect to property in its possession ... and this `duty could easily be met without extensive inventory.' The state can effectively insulate itself against fraudulent claims by simply listing by description any items of property taken from an arrestee; securing those items in a property bag or other secure storage container used in the facility, preferably in the arrestee's presence... .... FN 28. The government's interest in protecting itself against fraudulent post-incarceration claims of loss or damage to property is at best a tenuous reason for infringing the privacy of an individual's belongings. Consequently, an inventory search should be rigidly circumscribed in scope, perhaps more so than any other type of justified warrantless search.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. State v. Hamilton

3. “Unlike a post-arrest inventory, identification of the owner far outweighs the State’s other search purposes in searching lost property. When lost property is turned in to the police, their paramount goal must be to ascertain its ownership and return it to the owner in substantially the same condition as it was received. We therefore hold that police may validly search lost property to the extent necessary for identification purposes.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. State v. Kossman