PHOENIX - Police cannot routinely search the vehicles of people who they arrest, the Arizona Supreme Court has ruled.

In a 3-2 decision, the high court threw out the drug possession conviction of Rodney Gant. The majority said Tucson police illegally searched his car after arresting him outside the vehicle - a search that found narcotics which eventually resulted in his conviction.

Justice Rebecca Berch, writing for the majority, said police have authority in some circumstances to search a vehicle without warrant. But she said that is usually limited to situations of police safety - like looking for a weapon in the immediate area of the person being arrested - or where waiting for a warran might result in destruction of evidence.

She noted, though, Gant already was handcuffed and in the back of a patrol car. That, Berch said, means police violated Gant's Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure.

Justice Scott Bales, writing the dissent, said his colleagues were misinterpreting the law. He said searches of vehicles are reasonable - and legal - when someone who has been in the ca is legally arrested.

The decision is a defeat for police departments statewide who, working through the Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police an the Arizona Law Enforcement Legal Advisors' Association, filed legal papers with the Supreme Court urging a contrary ruling.

In fact, the groups' legal brief suggested that if warrantless searches like this are illegal, police will adopt different procedures to skirt the law, perhaps not handcuffing thouse they arrest until they can search a vehicle. Berch scoffed at that possibility.

"We presume that police officers will exercise proper judgment in their contacts with arrestees and will not engage in conduct which creates unnecessary risks to their safety or public safety in order to circumvent the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirements,'' she wrote.

And Berch said technology allows police to obtain search warrants within minutes "when they have probable cause to do so to protec a citizen's right to be free from unreasonable governmental searches.''

Court records show two uniformed Tucson police officers went to a house in 1999 after receiving a tip about narcotics activity there. Gant answered the door but said the owner was not home.

Police later checked records and learned Gant had a suspended driver's license and had an outstanding warrant for driving on a suspended license.

Later that evening police returned to the house.

Gant drove up, got out of his vehicle, and walked to where the officers had summoned him. He was immediately arrested handcuffed and soon placed in the back of a patrol car.

Officers later searched his car, finding a small bag of cocaine and a weapon. A Pima County superior court judge upheld th legality of the search, resulting in Gant's conviction.

Berch said a warrantless search was illegal because there was no danger to officer safety. Nor was he in a position to destroy evidence, she said.

She said the law does not require police to prove in every situation they were concerned for their safety or destruction of evidence. She said these concerns are presumed to exist any tim someone is arrested.

But she said once these concerns are no longer present - as they were here - than warrantless searches are no longer allowed.