SHEPARD, C.J.
Officer Romeo Joson of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department stopped Cedric Lewis’s vehicle in the 1700 block of North Sherman Drive after observing Lewis speeding and changing lanes without signaling. Lewis was accompanied by a passenger. Lewis did not have a driver’s license, but was able to produce a State identification card.
Joson checked Lewis’s status with the Bureau of Motor Vehicles and discovered that his driver’s license had been suspended. He ordered Lewis out of the vehicle and placed him under arrest for driving with a suspended license. Believing that the vehicle would be towed, Joson told the passenger to exit the vehicle. As Joson put it, “I went into the vehicle because the driver’s side door was still open. Stuck my head in there to also tell the passenger to get out of the vehicle, that Mr. Lewis was being [sic] under arrest for driving while suspended with the intent of possibly towing the vehicle.” (Tr. at 16.) When he stuck his head in the car, Joson immediately saw a handgun wedged between the driver’s seat and the center console.
In advance of trial and during trial, Lewis moved to suppress the gun, arguing that Joson violated the Fourth Amendment by sticking his head into the car to search for weapons. The court later overruled Lewis’s objection to the admission of the gun and found him guilty of unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon. [Footnote omitted.] Lewis qualified as a serious violent felon based on his 1997 conviction for attempted battery, as a class C felony, for shooting at a police officer. The court sentenced him to twelve years in prison.
The Court of Appeals reversed, in a decision that produced three opinions. Lewis v. State, 931 N.E.2d 875 (Ind. Ct. App. 2010). We granted transfer, 940 N.E.2d 828 (Ind. 2010) (table), thereby vacating the decision of the Court of Appeals.
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“A ‘search’ involves an exploratory investigation, prying into hidden places, or a looking for or seeking out.” Hardister v. State, 849 N.E.2d 563, 572 (Ind. 2006). Nothing like that occurred here. We stated long ago that “[i]t is not a search in any legal or colloquial sense for an officer to look into an automobile standing on the roadside.” Koscielski v. State, 199 Ind. 546, 549–50, 158 N.E. 902, 904 (1927). Since then we have held multiple times that there is no search when police look into cars during traffic stops. E.g., Alcon v. State, 255 Ind. 491, 265 N.E.2d 413 (Ind. 1970).
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The trial court found that the driver’s door was open when Joson approached the car. (Tr. at 45.) Joson lowered his head to talk to the passenger, but the court was not sure whether his head actually entered the car. (Tr. at 45.) The court found that Joson’s intention was to talk to the passenger and not to search. (Tr. at 45–46.) It concluded that Joson was not searching when he saw the gun in plain view.
We agree with the trial court. Joson needed to speak with the passenger and lowered his head down to her level. This is a perfectly reasonable thing to do when speaking with someone in a car. In the process, he saw a gun that was plainly visible between the driver’s seat and center console. As in Avant, Joson did not open any compartments, move any objects, or pull back anything to see the gun. It was just there.
Dickson, Sullivan, Rucker, and David, JJ., concur.