Under Purtell, 2014 WI 101, when a condition of probation prohibits the possession of a certain item, and the subject of the search knowingly breaks that condition, in most situations a probation agent would presumably have reasonable grounds to search the contents of the item. Purtell tells us that as long as there are “reasonable grounds” to believe a probationer has contraband, a probation agent will almost always have the right to search the contraband itself without a warrant. State v. Keller, 2017 WI App 19, 374 Wis. 2d 325, 893 N.W.2d 276, 16-0500. When a probation agent lawfully seized a contraband computer from a probationer but did not have the ability to examine the contents of the contraband and requested the assistance of an analyst at the division of criminal investigation, independent from any law enforcement investigation, so as to examine the contents of the computer, based upon the rationale set forth in Purtell, 2014 WI 101, and Devries, 2012 WI App 119, the search was not a police search. State v. Keller, 2017 WI App 19, 374 Wis. 2d 325, 893 N.W.2d 276, 16-0500. In cases involving warrantless community caretaker impoundments, the fundamental question is the reasonableness of the seizure. The absence of standard criteria does not by default render a warrantless community caretaker impoundment unconstitutional under the 4th amendment reasonableness standard, nor does an officer’s lack of adherence to standard criteria, if they exist, automatically render such impoundments unconstitutional. Under the reasonableness standard, an officer’s discretion to impound a car is sufficiently cabined by the requirement that the decision to impound be based, at least in part, on a reasonable community caretaking concern and not exclusively on the suspicion of criminal activity. State v. Asboth, 2017 WI 76, 376 Wis. 2d 644, 898 N.W.2d 541, 15-2052. The danger inherent to traffic stops authorizes an officer to take certain negligibly burdensome precautions in order to complete the mission safely. When after writing traffic citations, the officer returned to the defendant’s car and asked the defendant to submit to a search, this request did not extend the stop beyond its permissible duration. Because the request related to officer safety and was negligibly burdensome, it was part of the traffic stop’s mission and so did not cause an extension. Whatever additional time the actual search consumed, or the burden it imposed, was irrelevant so long as the defendant consented to it. State v. Floyd, 2017 WI 78, 377 Wis. 2d 394, 898 N.W.2d 560, 15-1294. See also State v. Brown, 2020 WI 63, 392 Wis. 2d 454, 945 N.W.2d 584, 17-0774. A court is not bound by an officer’s subjective reasons for a search. That a search was going to happen pursuant to law enforcement agency policy is not controlling. Rather, the question is whether the search itself was constitutionally permissible as an objective matter. The officer in this case had reasonable suspicion to search for weapons. One who reacts to a question by quieting down, becoming deflated, and responding demurely does so for a reason. A reasonably prudent officer seeing this response to a question about weapons would be suspicious and wonder if the answer was truthful. An abnormal nervousness or unusual response to interaction with law enforcement is a relevant factor in whether a person is armed and dangerous. State v. Nesbit, 2017 WI App 58, 378 Wis. 2d 65, 902 N.W.2d 266, 16-0224. In Hughes, 2000 WI 24, the supreme court held that exigent circumstances exist when there is a strong odor of marijuana emanating from a residence and occupants simply become aware of police outside the door. An officer could reasonably believe that a juvenile who is attempting to flee from a residence when officers are on the property and the odor of burning marijuana is in the air is more likely to also attempt to prevent evidence from being discovered by the police, including through the destruction of such evidence. State v. Torres, 2017 WI App 60, 378 Wis. 2d 201, 902 N.W.2d 543, 16-1061. Under Edmond, 531 U.S. 32 (2000), generally, a search or seizure will be deemed unreasonable in the absence of individualized suspicion of wrongdoing. However, there are limited circumstances when special law enforcement concerns justify highway stops without individualized suspicion, such as when a suspicionless search is designed to serve special needs, beyond the normal need for law enforcement. The factors for determining reasonableness are the gravity of the public concerns served by the seizure, the degree to which the seizure advances the public interest, and the severity of the interference with individual liberty. If the public interest aspects of the first two factors are not outweighed by the 4th amendment protections represented by the third factor, the protections offered by the 4th amendment are not violated. State v. Scott, 2017 WI App 74, 378 Wis. 2d 578, 904 N.W.2d 125, 16-1742. Because a traffic stop’s mission includes the ordinary inquiries, such as checking a driver’s license, an officer who lawfully stops a vehicle should be able to complete that mission even if the reason for the traffic stop ended during the officer’s walk to the stopped vehicle. Ordinary inquiries incident to the traffic stop include: checking the driver’s license, determining whether there are outstanding warrants against the driver, and inspecting the automobile’s registration and proof of insurance. State v. Smith, 2018 WI 2, 379 Wis. 2d 86, 905 N.W.2d 353, 15-0756. A police officer’s act of opening a vehicle’s passenger door in order to effectively communicate with a driver otherwise inaccessible due to the malfunctioning driver’s door and window when the defendant appeared to be cooperating and moving toward the passenger seat, and seemed to be trying to open the passenger door, did not constitute an unreasonable search. The officer’s actions, viewed objectively, would warrant a person of reasonable caution to believe the action taken was appropriate. State v. Smith, 2018 WI 2, 379 Wis. 2d 86, 905 N.W.2d 353, 15-0756. Despite the defendant passing field sobriety tests and the officer apparently concluding that the defendant was not impaired due to alcohol, the officer, quite reasonably, believed there was “something else going on,” though the officer did not know if it was a medical issue or a drug issue. From the totality of the circumstances, a reasonable inference of wrongful conduct—that the defendant had driven while under the influence of a drug or drugs—could be objectively discerned, and thus the officer had the right to continue the temporary detention of the defendant for further investigation. State v. Rose, 2018 WI App 5, 379 Wis. 2d 664, 907 N.W.2d 463, 16-2257. Under Payton, 445 U.S. 573 (1980), police may enter a residence pursuant to an arrest warrant if the facts and circumstances present the police with a reasonable belief that: 1) the subject of the arrest warrant resides in the home; and 2) the subject of the arrest warrant is present in the home at the time entry is effected. State v. Delap, 2018 WI 64, 382 Wis. 2d 92, 913 N.W.2d 175, 16-2196. A search occurs when a convicted recidivist sex offender who has completed the offender’s sentence is required to attach a monitoring device to the offender’s body to track the offender’s movements. The reasonableness of a search depends upon the totality of the circumstances, including the nature and purpose of the search and the extent to which the search intrudes upon reasonable privacy expectations. Under the totality of the circumstances, given the diminished nature of a defendant’s privacy interest and the state’s particularly strong interest in reducing recidivism through the information collected by the tracking device, the global positioning system tracking requirement for convicted sex offenders is reasonable under the 4th amendment. Kaufman v. Walker, 2018 WI App 37, 382 Wis. 2d 774, 915 N.W.2d 193, 17-0085. The 4th amendment’s special needs doctrine applies to s. 301.48. The global positioning system (GPS) tracking program effectively serves the recognized special needs of deterring future crimes and gathering information needed to solve them. The state’s interest in accomplishing these special needs in the context of sex crimes outweighs sex offenders’ diminished privacy expectations. Kaufman v. Walker, 2018 WI App 37, 382 Wis. 2d 774, 915 N.W.2d 193, 17-0085. Under Birchfield, 579 U.S. 438 (2016), it is impermissible to impose criminal penalties for refusing to submit to a warrantless blood draw. A lengthier jail sentence is a criminal penalty. Therefore, the circuit court in this case violated Birchfield by explicitly subjecting the defendant to a more severe criminal penalty because the defendant refused to provide a blood sample absent a warrant. State v. Dalton, 2018 WI 85, 383 Wis. 2d 147, 914 N.W.2d 120, 16-2483. The expectation of privacy in digital files is governed by the same standards as the expectation of privacy in physical property. There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in digital files that are publicly shared on a peer-to-peer network, including when law enforcement uses non-publicly available softwear and geolocation services based on a publicly available internet protocol (IP) address to discover the files and locate the defendant. State v. Baric, 2018 WI App 63, 384 Wis. 2d 359, 919 N.W.2d 221, 17-0185. Whether consent is verbal or inferred from one’s actions, consent must be unequivocal and specific. Leading an officer to the threshold of an apartment and then entering the apartment and closing the door does not imply consent for the officer to enter the apartment. The standard for measuring the scope of a suspect’s consent under the 4th amendment is that of objective reasonableness—what the typical reasonable person would have understood by the exchange between the officer and the suspect. State v. Reed, 2018 WI 109, 384 Wis. 2d 469, 920 N.W.2d 56, 16-1609. Generalized concerns for safety and risk of flight are not enough to give rise to exigent circumstances. The test is whether there are objective facts known to the officer that would reasonably lead the officer to believe that the delay caused by obtaining a warrant would gravely endanger life or greatly enhance the likelihood of the subject’s escape. State v. Reed, 2018 WI 109, 384 Wis. 2d 469, 920 N.W.2d 56, 16-1609. The 4th amendment tolerates certain investigations that are outside the scope of the mission of a traffic stop, so long as the investigations do not measurably extend the duration of the stop. When the officer questioned the defendant on whether the defendant had a valid concealed carry permit, although the questioning and a permit check were outside the mission of the traffic stop, they did not violate the 4th amendment because they did not measurably extend the duration of the stop and were conducted concurrently with mission-related activities. State v. Wright, 2019 WI 45, 386 Wis. 2d 495, 926 N.W.2d 157, 17-2006. See also State v. Brown, 2020 WI 63, 392 Wis. 2d 454, 945 N.W.2d 584, 17-0774. An anonymous informant is considered reliable if police are able to corroborate details in the informant’s tip. In this case, the record contained no information indicating the informant’s identity or whether the informant had provided reliable information to police in the past, but, because the tips were corroborated, the court did not discount them entirely in its analysis. Accordingly, the corroborated tips of the unnamed informant in this case could be considered in the analysis of the totality of the circumstances, giving them such weight as they were due. State v. Anderson, 2019 WI 97, 389 Wis. 2d 106, 935 N.W.2d 285, 17-1104. In this case, the immediate and continuous pursuit was a hot pursuit satisfying the 4th amendment exception to the warrant requirement. The measured speed at which the pursuit occurred in no way lessened its “hot” nature. State v. Ionescu, 2019 WI App 68, 389 Wis. 2d 586, 937 N.W.2d 90, 18-1620. The reasonableness approach, and not the categorical approach, is the correct interpretation of Gant, 556 U.S. 332 (2009). When the totality of the circumstances objectively demonstrated that the officer had reasonable suspicion that a bag in the passenger compartment of the vehicle might contain relevant evidence of operating while intoxicated (OWI), the search was permissible under the 4th amendment. State v. Coffee, 2020 WI 53, 391 Wis. 2d 831, 943 N.W.2d 845, 18-1209. In this case, the deputies were not performing a bona fide community caretaker function when they seized the defendant’s vehicle without a warrant. The defendant was parked on the side of a road after having been stopped for speeding, was alone in the vehicle, and had been driving with a suspended operator’s license. Although the defendant told the deputies who were issuing the traffic citations that the defendant could have a licensed driver retrieve the vehicle, the deputies told the defendant department policy required them to take the vehicle to an impound lot. A standardized policy may provide some evidence that the police performed their community caretaker role reasonably, but it cannot establish the predicate—that they were acting as community caretakers. Because the seizure in this case violated the 4th amendment, so did the ensuing inventory search. State v. Brooks, 2020 WI 60, 392 Wis. 2d 402, 944 N.W.2d 832, 18-1774. The U.S. Supreme Court in Mitchell, 588 U.S. ___, 139 S. Ct. 2525 (2019), indicated that a court’s exigent-circumstances analysis should consider whether law enforcement could have taken steps en route to a medical facility without significantly increasing the delay in procuring the blood sample. A court is not at liberty to begin the exigency analysis for a warrantless blood draw at a point following a suspect’s refusal to provide a blood sample when the U.S. Supreme Court has indicated the analysis begins earlier. State v. Hay, 2020 WI App 35, 392 Wis. 2d 845, 946 N.W.2d 190, 18-2240. Following Mitchell, 588 U.S. ___, 139 S. Ct. 2525 (2019), the four factors that the state bears the burden to show that exigent circumstances justified a warrantless blood draw are: 1) law enforcement has probable cause to believe that the driver has committed a “drunk-driving offense”; 2) the driver is, at pertinent times, unconscious or in a stupor; 3) the driver’s unconscious state or stupor requires that the driver be taken to a hospital or similar facility; and 4) the driver is taken to the hospital or similar facility before law enforcement has a “reasonable opportunity” to administer a standard evidentiary breath test. The burden is on the defendant to show that the defendant’s blood would not have been drawn if police had not been seeking blood alcohol concentration information and to show that law enforcement could not have reasonably judged that a warrant application would interfere with other pressing needs or duties. State v. Richards, 2020 WI App 48, 393 Wis. 2d 772, 948 N.W.2d 359, 17-0043. See also State v. Mitchell, 2022 WI App 31, 404 Wis. 2d 103, 978 N.W.2d 231, 19-1942. Because the natural dissipation of alcohol over time presents a risk that evidence will be destroyed, the passage of time may help support an exigent circumstances determination in a given case. Here, there had already been a significant delay, which occurred through no fault of the police. An objectively reasonable officer would have been concerned that additional delay to obtain a warrant, beyond the five hours that had already elapsed, would have further undermined the probative value of a test, possibly even rendering it inadmissible if an expert was not able to support its probative value. State v. Dieter, 2020 WI App 49, 393 Wis. 2d 796, 948 N.W.2d 431, 18-2269. The reasonable suspicion test for executing a traffic stop is not an exercise in evaluating individual details in isolation. It is the whole picture, evaluated together, that serves as the proper analytical framework. State v. Genous, 2021 WI 50, 397 Wis. 2d 293, 961 N.W.2d 41, 19-0435. A reasonable person being repetitively questioned while the officer retains the person’s driver’s license would not feel free to drive away and thereby terminate the encounter. In this case, it was the officer’s conduct of retaining the driver’s licenses, while repeatedly asking questions that the defendant and the passenger had already answered, that coerced the defendant to remain in the jurisdiction. Also, the officer’s questioning was intended to require them to remain in the jurisdiction so that time would pass and a drug-sniff dog would appear to sniff for drugs. Accordingly, the defendant was seized during the second round of repetitive questions while the officer retained the defendant’s driver’s license. State v. VanBeek, 2021 WI 51, 397 Wis. 2d 311, 960 N.W.2d 32, 19-0447. Although the time it takes to ask a question is measurable, the fact that an inquiry is made does not, in and of itself, create the type of unreasonable burden to make an extension of a traffic stop unlawful for 4th amendment purposes. That notion is true whether the question occurs in the “middle” of a stop versus at the very end of one. State v. Crone, 2021 WI App 29, 398 Wis. 2d 244, 961 N.W.2d 97, 18-1764.