People v. Deborah C.

Each of two wardship petitions charges 15-year-old Deborah with a count of petty theft. (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 602; Pen. Code, §§ 484, subd. (a), 488, 490.5, subd. (a).) In a consolidated proceeding the juvenile court sustained both petitions. Deborah appeals, asserting that physical evidence and confessions obtained by store security guards should have been suppressed.

One charge involves shoplifting at an Orbach’s store on July 12, 1979. At the adjudication-and-suppression hearing Joseph McGinnis, plainclothes security agent, testified that several times he saw Deborah palm costume jewelry from a display counter and hide it in her pocket. He followed her when with a friend she left the store without paying. McGinnis and his partner stopped her, took her to the store’s security office, and placed her under citizen’s arrest. Without giving a Miranda warning he asked her why she did it. She replied that her friend had told her it was easy to steal, so she thought she would. Over counsel’s objection the jewelry and confession were admitted.

*130 A second charge alleged that on or about October 22, 1979, she stole clothing from a Broadway store. Bernadette Laskowski,…

I concur in the majority opinion. I also agree with the views expressed in the concurring opinion of the Chief Justice. However, I would add another caveat, consistent with the conclusion I expressed for this court in Dyas v. Superior Court (1974) 11 Cal.3d 628 [ 114 Cal.Rptr. 114 , 522 P.2d 674 ].

I would invoke the folk wisdom that if an object looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is likely to be a duck. If a security officer in an establishment open to the public dresses like a peace officer, carries a gun and a simulated badge or shoulder emblem like a peace officer, and conducts himself in the authoritative manner of a peace officer, he surely will be deemed in the eyes of the public and detained suspects to be the equivalent of a peace officer. He should be held to the obligations imposed by law upon a peace officer.

*142 In Dyas , for example, the uniformed private security officer “was armed with a revolver, carried handcuffs, and had a two-way radio in his patrol car. Nor did he hesitate to use these indicia of authority in the manner in which they were intended. As we have seen, he radioed for a ‘back-up unit,’ ordered defendant to stand…

I concur in the majority opinion. However, I write separately to emphasize that the principles herein enunciated do not apply to off-duty police officers who work part time as security guards for private businesses. The majority’s holding is limited to a determination that the policies which underlie the Miranda decision do not extend to private security guards.

Unlike the private security guard, a police officer is under a continuing duty to protect the public. (See Pen. Code, §§ 830.1 and 836; *141 People v. Derby (1960) 177 Cal.App.2d 626 [ 2 Cal.Rptr. 401 ].) The fact that police pfficers may work part time for private businesses should not relieve them of their obligation to give Miranda warnings before conducting a custodial interrogation.

The logic of this distinction is borne out when two sets of facts are compared. 1 An off-duty police officer enters a store as a customer and sees someone in the act of shoplifting. The officer places the suspect under arrest. The Constitution requires that Miranda warnings be given before questioning the suspect about the incident. (See State v. Willadson (1978) — Minn. — [ 268 N.W.2d 546, 546-547 ].) Similarly, an off-duty police…