Whitely v. Warden
Citation and Court
401 U.S. 560 (1971) — Supreme Court of the United States
Facts
A Wyoming sheriff obtained an arrest warrant based on an informant’s tip. The sheriff radioed surrounding counties with the suspect’s description. Officers in another county stopped and arrested Whitely based on the radio bulletin and searched his car, finding burglary tools. The arrest warrant was later found defective for lack of probable cause.
Issue
Whether an arrest and search made in reliance on a police radio bulletin that was itself based on insufficient probable cause can be upheld under the collective knowledge doctrine.
Holding
No; when the originating officer lacks sufficient probable cause, that deficiency is imputed to all officers relying on the transmission. An officer cannot bootstrap probable cause by relying on another officer’s bulletin if that bulletin lacked constitutional support.
Rule / Doctrine
The collective knowledge (or fellow officer) rule allows an officer who lacks personal knowledge of all facts to act on information from other officers, but only if the originating officer(s) had adequate probable cause. If the foundational probable cause is defective, reliance on the bulletin provides no constitutional shield.
Significance
Established an important limitation on the collective knowledge doctrine: officers cannot launder an insufficiently supported arrest or search by routing it through a police dispatch. The constitutional validity of the underlying probable cause determination must be assessed.