Cite as: 524 U. S. 357 (1998)
Souter, J., dissenting
As to the police, the majority says that regular officers investigating crimes almost always act with the prospect of a criminal prosecution before them. Their fear of evidentiary suppression in the criminal trial will have as much deterrent effect as can be expected, therefore, while any risk of suppression in parole administration is too unlikely to be on their minds to influence their conduct.
The majority's assumption will only sometimes be true, however, and in many, or even most cases, it will quite likely be false. To be sure, if a police officer acts on the spur of the moment to seize evidence or thwart crime, he may have no idea of a perpetrator's parole status. But the contrary will almost certainly be the case when he has first identified the person he has his eye on: the local police know the local felons, criminal history information is instantly available nationally, and police and parole officers routinely cooperate. See, e. g., United States ex rel. Santos v. New York State Bd. of Parole, 441 F. 2d 1216, 1217 (CA2 1971) (police officer, who had obtained "reasonable grounds" to believe that the parolee was dealing in stolen goods, informed the parole officer; the parole officer and police officer together searched parolee's apartment), cert. denied, 404 U. S. 1025 (1972); Grimsley v. Dodson, 696 F. 2d 303, 304 (CA4 1982) (upon receipt of information about probationer, probation officer contacted a sheriff, sheriff obtained search warrant, and together they searched probationer's house), cert. denied, 462 U. S. 1134 (1983); State ex rel. Wright v. Ohio Adult Parole Auth., 75 Ohio St. 3d 82, 83-84, 661 N. E. 2d 728, 730 (1996) (police officers suspected parolee had committed burglary and asked his parole officer to search his residence; parolee was then reincarcerated for violating his parole conditions); People v. Stewart, 242 Ill. App. 3d 599, 611-612, 610 N. E. 2d 197, 206 (1993) (police conducting illegal traffic stop and subsequent search and seizure knew or had reason to know that defendant was on probation); People v. Montenegro, 173 Cal. App. 3d 983, 986, 219 Cal. Rptr. 331, 332 (4th Dist. 1985) (police contacted parole agent so that they could conduct search of
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