Unli-search!

Gregorio Miguel Pallugna

HOW annoying can mall parking lot guards get? Anyone who drives a car knows that parking inside a mall this season can be frustrating. Waiting in line to get inside the parking area can be even more annoying. You wait through a long line of cars for eternity only to end up with your vehicle being uselessly searched by a guard who routinely opens your trunk and slides a small mirror under one portion of one side of your car. If you did have a bomb or some mass killing device, you would have a hundred percent chance of getting it inside. So why do they do it anyway? Or more importantly, do they have the right to do it?

Some of us may know that the Constitution prohibits searches without a search warrant issued by a court. People are protected by law against unreasonable searches and seizures, which is why at police checkpoints, all the police can do is to make what is called a “visual search” or a mere look through a slightly opened window of your car. They cannot require you to get down from your car and they cannot require you to show them what is inside your glove compartment. They cannot even require you to open your trunk. If you do not already know this, you might also not know that the police cannot stop your car unless they are at a duly designated checkpoint, or if you are committing a traffic violation, or if they have probable cause that you are committing a crime. Probable cause is basically just a fancy term which means a reasonable ground to believe that something is so, such as a tip from an informant or visible acts from the suspected perpetrator of an offense. So, if a police officer hails your car and there is no checkpoint sign, stop and ask what your violation is. Those are the only reasons why the police can stop you. If the person is not in police uniform, do not stop.

In one case, police stopped a car at a checkpoint and required the driver to open a package found inside. The package was discovered to contain illegal drugs. The Supreme Court acquitted the driver, saying that the police had no reasonable basis to believe that the package had illegal contents in it which is why they should not have required the driver to open it. Also, the driver was not acting suspiciously as to make the policemen believe that he was committing a crime. Even if there were in fact illegal drugs inside the package, the illegality of the search rendered the drugs inadmissible in court as evidence of any crime. The lesson here for the policemen is that in law, the end does not justify the means.

Now, back to guards. While the police generally cannot stop you and require you to get down from your car or search the inside of your car, the mall guards can. Yes, they are more powerful than police officers in this regard. They are allowed to do this because they are not government officers. The protection against unreasonable searches and seizures found in Article III, Section 2 of the Constitution is not applicable to civilians, which guards are. The protection is available only against government officers who normally have reasonable power and influence over private individuals and may use this abusively. Of course, a guard cannot hail your car in the middle of the highway and require you to bare it all. That would be a grave violation of your right to privacy. But once you attempt to enter a privately owned establishment, the owners–or their guards–can absolutely and legally require you to open all openings your car can possibly offer. This is not a violation of your rights because you have the unbridled power to turn your vehicle 180 degrees and refuse to enter. If you really want to get inside, then you comply to their every whim.

Yes, mall guards pretty much have a lot of leeway in conducting searches of shoppers’ vehicles, but I still do not get what on Earth they do it for. Clearly, swiping a small mirror under the right side of my car will not expose the grenade I keep under my driver’s seat if I were a terrorist–which I am not. In any case, I am always very much willing to comply with their requests, unlike a friend of mine who manages his frustration and feels vindicated by yelling, “Galamlama lang mo!” every time he passes by a routine security search.