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Argued November 20, 2003; decided December 22, 2003
People v Johnson, 298 AD2d 281, reversed.
{**1 NY3d at 253} OPINION OF THE COURT
G.B. Smith, J.
Following an arrest for driving with a suspended license, the police recovered a loaded gun in defendant's vehicle. The issue in this case is whether the evidence was seized pursuant to a valid {**1 NY3d at 254}inventory search. We agree with the suppression court and the defendant that the evidence adduced at the hearing was insufficient to establish that the alleged inventory search was valid, and therefore reverse the Appellate Division.
I.
Defendant James Johnson was indicted for multiple counts of criminal possession of a weapon. At the suppression hearing, the arresting officer testified that on October 2, 1999, he and his partner were patrolling an area of Harlem in an unmarked car and in plainclothes. The [*2]officers were part of the Manhattan North Street Crime Unit which focused on "aggressive crimes," including removing guns from the streets. The arresting officer had been a member of the Unit for about six or seven months and this was his third or fourth arrest. His partner was a sergeant.
The arrest took place around 7:10 p.m. at 133rd Street and Seventh Avenue (Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard). About eight minutes earlier, the officers had observed defendant's vehicle, a black Isuzu Trooper with Virginia license plates, "traveling at a high rate of speed cutting across lanes" without always signaling. The officers had initially stopped behind defendant's vehicle at a red light at 133rd Street and Seventh Avenue. The officers learned that the car was a rental after radioing another vehicle for a plate check.
The officers followed the vehicle as it made a left turn on 135th Street heading west to Eighth Avenue (Frederick Douglass Boulevard), then a right turn heading north until 145th Street, then another right heading east to Seventh Avenue and another right heading south until returning to 133rd and Seventh Avenue. During the pursuit, the officer observed that other cars in front of the vehicle were forced to move out of its way and pedestrians were "jumping back on the sidewalks."
As the officer exited his vehicle, he observed defendant reach for the glove compartment, open it, and then close it. When the officer reached the driver's side of the vehicle, the officer told defendant that he had been pulled over for "driving kind of reckless." When asked for his driver's license and registration, defendant offered his license and stated that the car was a rental, but that he did not have the rental agreement with him. The officer then asked him to look in the glove compartment, but defendant stated that the agreement was not there. When the officer radioed another vehicle for a license check, the license came {**1 NY3d at 255}back suspended. The officer then told defendant to step out of the vehicle, conducted a pat-down search, and directed him to the back of the vehicle. Although the officer had yet to inform defendant, defendant was under arrest for driving with a suspended license.
While defendant remained at the back of his car with the officer's partner, the officer

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