People v. Superior Court (Kiefer)

In People v. Superior Court (Kiefer) (1970) 3 Cal.3d 807, the defendant was stopped for speeding as he was driving down the freeway with his wife in the front passenger seat. As he was pulling over, the officer saw the defendant's wife lean into the back seat, turn back toward the front, bend over to the floor, and then resume a normal sitting position. Defendant immediately got out of the car and offered his driver's license to the officer, but the officer walked over to the passenger door, opened it, and looked inside. The officer testified that he wanted to see what had been hidden and was concerned about his safety. He noticed green seeds and stems lying on the floor mat, and a thorough search of the car disclosed marijuana. (People v. Superior Court (Kiefer), supra, 3 Cal.3d at pp. 811-812.) Our Supreme Court concluded that the search of the car violated the Fourth Amendment. After an extensive discussion about the ambiguous nature of furtive gestures, it explained that such a gesture can be deemed suspicious only when there are additional facts giving it a guilty connotation such as "prior reliable information or . . . the officer's personal observation of contraband or a deliberate act of concealment under otherwise suspicious circumstances." (People v. Superior Court (Kiefer), supra, 3 Cal.3d at pp. 819-820.) The Court held that furtive gestures do not supply the probable cause necessary to search a car for contraband, and a significant portion of its discussion is devoted to an analysis of that issue. (People v. Superior Court (Kiefer), supra, 3 Cal.3d at pp. 813-828.) But the decision also concluded that furtive gestures do not themselves give an officer reasonable grounds to believe that weapons are present in a vehicle. (Id. at p. 829.) In reaching this result, Kiefer applied the Terry standard to a weapons search of a vehicle, as the United States Supreme Court later did in Long. (Ibid.)