In People v. English (73 N.Y.2d 20, 537 N.Y.S.2d 987 [1989]), the parolee was suspected of committing a past burglary. When he reported to his parole officer, routine questioning revealed that he has been using marijuana and a routine search unearthed a knife. The parole officer then declared that he was "violating" the parole and placed him in handcuffs. Then, without first Mirandizing him, he questioned him about the burglary and obtained the admissions which were subsequently suppressed by the Court of Appeals. In People v. English, it was argued that since "answers given by parolees during interviews with their parole officers are invariably compelled in a constitutional sense due to the inherently coercive effect of the parolee's legal obligation to answer truthfully" any incriminating statement given in the absence of Miranda warnings is per se, illegally obtained. Although the Court of Appeals suppressed the statements at issue in English (supra), because the parole officer failed to Mirandize his parolee, the Court specifically declined to "decide whether the nature of the parole officer-parolee relationship is such that even routine, noncustodial questioning must be preceded by Miranda warnings if it is concerned with possible criminal activity" (English at 24).