Harvey v. State

In Harvey v. State, 266 Ga. 671 (469 SE2d 176) (1996), an officer who was responding to a report of suspicious activity encountered Harvey and obtained his identification. Id. The officer requested a computer check through the Georgia and National Crime Information Centers ("NCIC"), and the check revealed that there was a bench warrant for Harvey's arrest. Id. The officer asked the dispatcher to confirm the status of the warrant and was told that it was still valid and outstanding. Id. After placing Harvey under arrest pursuant to the warrant, the officer conducted a search incident to the arrest and discovered cocaine. Id. The State later discovered that the bench warrant had been recalled prior to Harvey's arrest. Id. Still, the trial court denied Harvey's motion to suppress the cocaine, and, in affirming the denial, the Supreme Court ruled as follows: A warrantless search is authorized if conducted pursuant to a lawful arrest. OCGA 17-5-1. It is undisputed that Harvey was not lawfully arrested pursuant to the bench warrant itself, since that bench warrant had been recalled several days before Harvey was arrested. However, the validity of an arrest is not necessarily dependent upon the existence of a valid arrest warrant because, if the person detained is outside of his home and probable cause to arrest exists at the time of detention, a warrant is not required. If, when the arrest is made, the facts and circumstances known to the arresting officer are sufficient to warrant a prudent person in believing that the accused had committed or is committing an offense, the warrantless arrest passes constitutional muster. Accordingly, resolution of this case ultimately is dependent upon whether, at the time of Harvey's arrest, the officer had probable cause to make that arrest. At the moment the arrest was made, the officer knew that a valid bench warrant had been issued for Harvey's arrest. The radio transmission, which confirmed the outstanding warrants, established the necessary probable cause to arrest Harvey. It is of no consequence that the officer later discovered that the validly issued bench warrant had been recalled. The existence of probable cause must be measured by current knowledge, i.e., at the moment the arrest is made and not hindsight. The material inquiry is whether the facts within the officer's knowledge at the time of the arrest constituted reasonably trustworthy information which was sufficient to authorize a prudent person to believe that Harvey had committed an offense. While the NCIC printouts would not be sufficient to authorize conviction, they have been held to be reliable enough to underlie the reasonable belief which is needed to establish probable cause for arrest. Thus, Harvey's arrest was lawful since the evidence shows that the officer was acting on reliable information that there was an outstanding felony warrant against Harvey. In relying upon the computer report, the officer was quite wrong as it turned out, and subjective good-faith belief would not in itself justify either the arrest or the subsequent search. But sufficient probability, not certainty, is the touchstone of reasonableness under the Fourth Amendment and on the record before us the officer's mistake was understandable and the arrest a reasonable response to the situation facing him at the time. Although in arresting Harvey, the officer relied upon the misinformation from the NCIC, he neither knew, nor could be reasonably expected to have known, that the information was incorrect when he made the arrest. The information, which subsequently was proven wrong, was stale by only four days. This Court, in hindsight, will not declare an arrest to be invalid when the arresting officer reasonably relied upon information which he had no reason to think was incorrect. Id. at 672-673.