Bell Work (Think of your response and be prepared to share)   What is the BEST and/or WORST encounter you, a “friend”, or a family member has ever had with a law enforcement officer?

The Right to Privacy Police Encounters

Right to Privacy The “Right to Privacy” has been found by the United States Supreme Court to exist pursuant to the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. As all other portions of the Constitution, it is applicable to the States pursuant to the Fourteenth Amendment.

4th Amendment “The right of people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated, and no warrant shall issue without probable cause supported by oath or affirmation particularly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be searched”

Reasonable Suspicion More than a "budding and unparticularized suspicion or 'hunch'"; it must be based on "specific and articulable facts", "taken together with rational inferences from those facts"

Probable Cause "a reasonable amount of suspicion, supported by circumstances sufficiently strong to justify a prudent and cautious person's belief that certain facts are probably true"

General Rule General rule, law enforcement officers must have a search warrant before they can search you, your house, papers, and effects. There are exceptions to this warrant requirement:

Exceptions Consent: No warrant or probable cause needed if person has voluntarily consented to a search of his/her person, etc.

Exceptions Emergency situations: Warrantless searches justified when necessary to prevent immediate harm to person or property or the destruction of evidence.

Exceptions Searches of vehicles: Because a vehicle can be quickly moved, officers can search a vehicle without a warrant any time they have reasonable grounds for believing it contains illegal substances and/or objects.

Exceptions Hot pursuit: Officers in pursuit of a fleeing suspect who has committed a crime do not have to obtain a warrant before searching a person or vehicle

Exceptions The “Plain View” Doctrine: If officers have a legitimate reason for being in a certain place, and they see illegal substances and/or objects “in plain view” they can seize them without a search warrant.

Exceptions Stop and Frisk: Police may briefly stop a person to investigate if they have a reasonable suspicion that the person has committed, or is about to commit a crime, and they may frisk a person for weapons even if they don’t have a reasonable suspicion that he/she is armed.

Stop and Frisk Rules Police may pat down a suspect for weapons in order to provide for their safety and that of the public, even if there is not reasonable suspicion that he/she is armed. After frisking a person, if officer detects “hard objects” on that person, officer may order that they be removed for inspection. Police cannot conduct frisks for purpose of discovering evidence other than weapons.

Exceptions Search Incident to Arrest: If you are arrested, police can search you, the area under your immediate control (such as interior of the car, but not the trunk, if you are arrested in a car.)

Exceptions Use of “sniff dogs”: Use of dogs and/or objects, on you or around automobiles, is not a “search,” therefore, it does not violate the 4th Amendment. BUT, police cannot make you wait for dogs to arrive to sniff out illegal substances if it lengthens a traffic stop for any amount of time.