Levine, J.
This court must decide if a Pembroke Pines police officer working as a special deputy assigned to the Broward County Sheriffs Office (BSO) Multi-Agency Gang Task Force was authorized to stop appellant in the City of Hollywood for a traffic citation. We hold that the state presented insufficient evidence to demonstrate that the officer had jurisdiction to stop appellant for a traffic citation. Therefore, we reverse.
While driving in the City of Hollywood, a Pembroke Pines police officer stopped appellant for a seatbelt violation. At the time, the officer was working as a special deputy as part of the Broward County Sheriffs Office Multi-Agency Gang Task Force. The officer called for a K-9 unit. Another Pembroke Pines officer, also a member of the gang task force, arrived with his canine partner. Appellant consented to a search of his car, and three capsules of heroin were found in an envelope above appellants seat.
Appellant unsuccessfully moved to suppress the evidence obtained during the traffic stop as the fruits of an unlawful search, arguing that the Pembroke Pines officer lacked jurisdiction to stop his vehicle in the City of Hollywood. During the suppression hearing, the states evidence consisted solely of the officers Notice of Appointment to the gang task force and the officers testimony regarding his understanding of his authority. The state presented no evidence during the suppression hearing or at trial indicating that the stop or the heroin was gang-related.
At trial, the evidence showed that appellant had agreed to drive his roommate and a friend down to Miami from his home in Hollywood on the day of the stop. While in Miami, the roommate purchased heroin while appellant waited in his car. During the ride home, the roommate handed appellant an envelope containing three small heroin capsules. Appellant took the envelope and placed it in the drivers side visor above him.
The jury convicted appellant of possession of heroin. Appellant appeals raising several issues, including the denial of his motion to suppress.
In reviewing a ruling on a motion to suppress, we defer to the trial courts factual findings, but review its legal conclusions de novo. Woods v. State , 25 So.3d 669, 670 (Fla. 4th DCA 2010).
The officers appointment as a special deputy is governed by section 30.09(4)(b), Florida Statutes. That section allows special deputies to be appointed for a number of permitted purposes, including undercover investigative work. § 30.09(4)(b), Fla. Stat. (2016).
Section 30.09 has been interpreted as granting only specific, limited powers to special deputies. See generally Ramer v. State , 530 So.2d 915 (Fla. 1988). In appointing a special deputy, a county sheriff may not grant unrestrained power or delegate the sheriffs law enforcement functions to the deputized official. Id. at 917-18. Thus, while a special deputy is authorized to use the powers available to a sheriff when performing activities specifically allowed by the statute or as part of the specific program under which he is deputized, he may not exercise that power when he is acting beyond the scope of his role as a special deputy. See id. at 917.
Here, the officers Notice of Appointment to the gang task force specifically stated that the officer was appointed as a special deputy pursuant to section 30.09(4)(b). The Notice of Appointment granted the officer only those powers of arrest reasonable and necessary to perform undercover investigative work for the Task Force. Thus, the terms of the Notice of Appointment granted members of the gang task force authority to arrest only while doing undercover, task force-related investigations.
The plain language of the Notice of Appointment did not authorize officers to use their special deputy powers solely to initiate or further an investigation beyond the Task Force unless pursuant to a written authorization of the Sheriff or his designee. Relatedly, the Notice of Appointment provided that a special deputy does not possess general authority to act as a law enforcement representative or deputy [BSO] sheriff.
The officer did not testify that he was working undercover on the day of the stop. Nor did he testify that he was performing investigative work related to the gang task force when he pulled appellant over for a seatbelt violation. Thus, his stop exceeded the grant of authority in the Notice of Appointment, which was the sole evidence of his authority produced by the state below.
The officer testified that he believed he had the same authority as a BSO officer based on his conversation with a BSO deputy supervising the sweep day on the day of the arrest. Significantly, this particular BSO deputy did not testify at trial, nor did the state produce any Standard Operating Procedures that might support the officers interpretation. That the sweep day activity in question was apparently a prior task force practice does not establish authority. Per the officers testimony, on monthly sweep days, deputized task force members would meet with a BSO deputy and then divide up to patrol various parts of Broward County. Notably, he did not testify that, on the day he stopped appellant, he was conducting a gang-related sweep. Instead, he likened that days sweep to a routine law enforcement patrol.
The officers interpretation of the task forces authority directly contradicted the Notice of Appointments provision that task force members do not, in fact, have general BSO law enforcement authority. The plain language of the Notice of Appointment limited the officers special deputy powers to those related to the gang task force and did not authorize non-task force arrests. Although he was working with the gang task force on the day of the arrest, that work was not within the scope of undercover investigative work allowed by the Notice of Appointment.
In sum, the state presented no evidence supplementing the Notice of Appointments clear terms. The officers testimony, which conflicted with the Notice of Appointments limitations on deputy authority, was insufficient to show that he had jurisdiction to make the stop. The lack of evidence demonstrating jurisdiction mandates reversal here.
Reversed .
Conner and Forst, JJ., concur.
Because we reverse the trial courts order on the motion to suppress, we need not reach the other issues raised in this appeal.
The relevant portions of the Notice of Appointment are reproduced below:
[S]pecial deputy status shall be limited to participating in the Broward County Multi-Agency Gang Task Force (hereinafter referred to as Task Force) with powers of arrest reasonable and necessary to perform undercover investigative work for the Task Force.
The above limited powers of authority are subject to the following conditions:
(1) Special deputys authority shall not be valid outside the scope of the Task Force.
(6) Special deputy shall act in accordance with the Task Forces Standard Operating Procedures (hereinafter referred to as Task Forces SOPs) and the Sheriffs Office of Broward Countys Standard Operating Procedures (hereinafter referred to as Sheriffs SOPs). Therefore, before special deputy takes any action utilizing the power received pursuant to this appointment, he/she will be completely familiarized with all of the Task Force and Sheriffs SOPs, rules, regulations, and directives and completely comply with them to the letter.
(8) Under no circumstances will the special deputy exercise his/her powers as a special deputy solely to initiate or further an investigation beyond the Task Force unless pursuant to written authorization of the Sheriff or his designee.
(9) Special deputy does not possess general authority to act as a law enforcement representative or deputy sheriff of the Sheriffs Office of Broward County.
The Office of the Attorney General has concluded that mutual aid agreements wherein law enforcement agencies assist one another do[ ] not contemplate a complete assumption of law enforcement services by an assisting agency, but [are] more limited in scope. Op. Atty Gen. Fla. 02-46 (2002). Although an Attorney Generals opinion is not binding on this court, we treat it as highly persuasive. State v. Family Bank of Hallandale , 623 So.2d 474, 478 (Fla. 1993).