United States v. Stratton, 71-1158.
Decision Date | 17 April 1972 |
Docket Number | No. 71-1158.,71-1158. |
Citation | 453 F.2d 36 |
Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Edward James STRATTON, Appellant. |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit |
R. William Breece, Jr., St. Louis, Mo., for appellant.
William C. Martin, Asst. U. S. Atty., Daniel Bartlett, Jr., U. S. Atty., for appellee.
Before GIBSON, BRIGHT and ROSS, Circuit Judges.
Certiorari Denied April 17, 1972. See 92 S.Ct. 1515.
The defendant was convicted in a jury trial of possessing two counterfeit $5 federal reserve notes in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 472,1 and was sentenced to a six-year term of imprisonment. During the course of the trial the defendant moved to suppress the evidence obtained incident to the arrest of the defendant, claiming the Government had failed to show probable cause for the warrantless arrest. While the defendant admits the existence of objective factors sufficient to constitute probable cause for a warrantless arrest he contends that the officers making the arrest were not possessed of this knowledge.2
Under Title 18 U.S.C. § 3056, Secret Service agents are authorized to make arrests without warrant for offenses committed in their presence or if they have reasonable ground to believe that the person to be arrested has committed or is committing a felony cognizable under the laws of the United States.3 The defendant contends that on the basis of Beck v. State of Ohio, 379 U.S. 89, 85 S.Ct. 223, 13 L.Ed.2d 142 (1964) and United States v. La Macchio, 362 F.2d 383 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, 385 U.S. 992, 87 S.Ct. 606, 17 L.Ed.2d 453 (1966), the facts and circumstances comprising probable cause must be within the knowledge of the arresting officers at the moment of the arrest.4
We believe this to be a too literal reading of the above cases and that probable cause is to be determined upon the objective facts available for consideration by the agencies or officers participating in the arrest; otherwise each individual officer would have to be fully briefed or informed of all of the essential factors in each case before proceeding to make an arrest upon probable cause. The objective facts related to the Secret Service agents prior to the arrest in this case are as follows: two different individuals who testified in the case previously notified the agents that the defendant had passed to them different and separate counterfeit notes or obligations and had tried to pass what appeared to be a counterfeit note which was refused. It was from this evidence that the District Court concluded the Secret Service agents had reason to believe the defendant was passing counterfeit notes and thus to effect his arrest.
The defendant does not dispute the sufficiency of the collective information available to the Secret Service agents to establish probable cause to believe that defendant had committed a felony in passing the counterfeit notes, but claims that the arresting agents were not personally possessed of this knowledge.
We think the knowledge of one officer is the knowledge of all and that in the operation of an investigative or police agency the collective knowledge and the available objective facts are the criteria to be used in assessing probable cause. The arresting officer himself need not possess all of the available information. As stated in Stassi v. United States, 410 F.2d 946 (5th Cir. 1969), Id. at 952, n. 7.
We have very recently passed on this issue in White v. United States, 448 F. 2d 250 (8th Cir. 1971); our discussion there was directed to the question of probable cause for a warrantless search, but it is equally applicable to the question of probable cause for a warrantless arrest:
In a somewhat analogous context, the Supreme Court has held that arresting officers are entitled to rely on the knowledge possessed by other officers in making arrests. In Whiteley v. Warden, 401 U.S. 560, 91 S.Ct. 1031, 28 L.Ed.2d 306 (1971), the question before the Court was whether an arrest pursuant to a warrant was valid. While the Court held that the affidavit supporting the issuance of the warrant was insufficient, it also clearly indicated that the...
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