Community Caretaking and Impounding Vehicles

Community Caretaking and Impounding Vehicles

RC Phillips, DDA (Ret.)
Updated on November, 2021

Driving on a Suspended or Revoked License (or Never Had a License), per V.C. § 14601.1 (or V.C. § 12500), and the Community Caretaking Doctrine:  In the previous California Legal Update (Vol. 24, #11, Oct. 28, 2019), my brief of a Fourth District Court of Appeal (San Diego) decision, People v. Lee (Oct. 3, 2019) 40 Cal.App.5th 853, brought forth a number of (sometimes) irate (“don’t kill the messenger”) responses concerning the impounding of vehicles.  As I noted in my brief, Lee specifically held that despite the existence of authorizing statutes (e.g., V.C. § 14602.6(a)(1)), it is a Fourth Amendment violation to impound a vehicle and conduct a subsequent warrantless inventory search unless such an impoundment is also allowable under the so-called “Community Caretaking Doctrine.”  In ....