The City of Sunnyvale doesn't have a "Police Department" or a "Fire Department." No, actually it has the Office of Public Safety. Now that really sounds like something from the French Revolution, but nevertheless, the OPS is an integrated office of police officers and firefighters. What makes this so different is that every police officer is also a firefighter and well, of course vice-versa. That means an employee of the OPS is a cop on one shift and then a fireman on his next shift.
At first blush this sounds like an efficient operation where the police and firefighters are far more integrated and connected which should prove more resourceful. And this is probably true. But there is an inadvertent darker side to this efficient makeup: the police now have a vehicle for circumventing the 4th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The 4th Amendment keeps us safe from intrusive searches and seizures of our persons, places and things. Most people know that law enforcement cannot search your home without a warrant for example. Now this rule is applied differently (given the circumstances) to police and fire safety personnel. For instance, when a fire damages a home firefighters can rush in to put it out. More to point, when the fire is out, firefighters may remain to investigate the cause of the fire. Police cannot.
Now let's take this scenario to Sunnyvale. House was on fire, the firefighter put it out. Can an OPS officer, wearing blue (acting as a cop) enter the building? Common sense would say no, absolutely, 100% no. Well, according to the Superior Court, this police officer may merely take one hat off and put his other on. The reasoning is convoluted and I will not bore you with it.
Actually, I had a client who experienced this very thing. His apartment caught fire and apartment personnel put it out. The fire unit arrived on scene and entered to conduct an investigation. The police arrive and waited outside, receiving and making reports. Good. Fine. Well, a fireman walks out and up to the commanding police officer and reports that they found pornographic DVDs strewn upon the ground and that there was a computer downloading "something." No warrant. No permission. No probable cause to even get a warrant. The commanding police officer entered the building and searched the apartment, including my client's computer! He was arrested for possession of child pornography. To a Superior Court judge that was just fine.
Of course I wanted to appeal, but the DA offered conditional no state prison. My client took it and served six months.
