The DC Court of Appeals reversed a lower court today when it found that an officer from the city's Gun Recovery Unit did not receive consent before finding a handgun during a warrantless search of the appellant's satchel: dccourts.gov/sites/default/… 
"Denton said he was particularly concerned that Hawkins might have a gun because Denton’s unit had 'recovered many firearms' from satchels that summer."
"We just want to make sure everything is cool and nobody has any illegal firearms.”
"We agree that the government did not prove that Hawkins consented to Denton’s search and therefore reverse."
"Evaluated under the 'totality of the surrounding circumstances,'... it does not appear that Hawkins even had the opportunity to refuse consent."
"We need not go so far as to say that the videotape 'blatantly contradicts' the finding of consent... but we have not seen videotape evidence to support it."
"The officer’s conclusory reference to a 'trend' of finding guns hidden in satchels that summer was not supported by details which would allow the court to 'evaluate the reasonableness of [this] particular search[.]'"
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