Search and Seizure
An Officer runs a license plate and then the R.O.'s DL, he finds the DL is suspended. The Officer is unable to see who is driving. Can the Officer legally stop the vehicle and investigate the suspended DL?
YES
Kansas v. Glover
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/589/18-556/
"When the officer lacks information negating an inference that the owner is driving the vehicle, an investigative traffic stop made after running a vehicle’s license plate and learning that the registered owner’s driver’s license has been revoked is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment. An officer may initiate a brief investigative traffic stop when he has “a particularized and objective basis” to suspect wrongdoing. The level of suspicion required is less than necessary for probable cause and depends on “the factual and practical considerations of everyday life.”
Officer Smith and Officer Jones responded to a DV call. Officer Smith talked with the suspect and obtained a confession. Officer Smith told Officer Jones about the confession. Can Officer Jones use the information (probable cause) garnered from Officer Smith's conversation with the suspect to support an arrest?
Yes
US v Chavez
https://casetext.com/case/us-v-chavez-102
Police Officers can rely on probable cause given to them from other police officers. (Collective Knowledge Doctrine)
List the five things the 5th Amendment protects.
Grand Jury (You get this)
Double Jeopardy (You can't have this)
Self Incrimination (You don't have to do this)
Due Process (You get this)
Eminent Domain (Can't take it, unless...)
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
You respond to a stolen vehicle call. The victim tells you their friend stole the car. During your investigation you go to the suspect's house and see car under a tarp parked in the driveway. You can see part of the car and the color matches that of the stolen car. Based on your observations, can you lift the tarp to verify that this is (or is not) the car?
NO
Collins v. Virginia
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/584/16-1027/
The Fourth Amendment's automobile exception does not permit the warrantless entry of a home or its curtilage to search a vehicle therein.
What is required to initiate a traffic stop?
A. Consent
B. Proof beyond a reasonable doubt
C. Probable Cause
D. Reasonable Suspicion
D. Reasonable Suspicion
You may stop a vehicle if you have individualized reasonable suspicion that any occupant may be involved in criminal activity. Probable Cause is not required. (See Pg. 115 of Search and Seizure Survival Guide / Blue to Gold)
What two basic requirements must be met in order for Miranda to apply?
Custody & Questioning
By custodial interrogation, we mean questioning initiated by law enforcement officers after a person has been taken into custody or otherwise deprived of his freedom of action in any significant way...
You suspect a suspect is traffic narcotics into and out of the city. After a lengthy investigation you decide to place a tracker on the car to monitor the suspect's travels. You use the tracker information to locate and arrest the suspect on the roadway and further use the information obtained during the stop to obtain a search warrant for the suspect's home where evidence of distribution is found. Are you required to get a search warrant to place the tracker on the car?
YES
United States v. Jones
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/565/400/
Respondent was convicted of drug trafficking and conspiracy charges. The District Court suppressed GPS data from a vehicle parked outside of respondent's residence, but held the remaining data admissible because respondent had no reasonable expectation of privacy when the vehicle was on a public street. The D.C. Circuit reversed, concluding that admission of the evidence obtained by warrantless use of the GPS device violated the Fourth Amendment. The Court held that the Government's installation of a GPS device on a target's vehicle, and its use of that device to monitor the vehicle's movements, constituted a search under the Fourth Amendment. Accordingly, the judgment of the Court of Appeals was affirmed.
You respond to an overdose call where the subject is unconscious. While one Officer renders aid, the second Officer begins to search the subject's pockets for medications or potential illegal drugs that could have led to the overdose. Is the second Officer justified in his warrantless search?
YES
You're allowed to conduct a limited "medical search" of an unconscious person or someone in serious medical distress in order to determine the cause of injury (if unknown) and to ascertain his identification to help render aid. Your search should be objectively reasonable under the circumstances. See pg. 227 Search and Seizure Survival Guide /Blue to Gold
You respond to a DV call and meet with the victim on the front porch. He tells you his wife threw a fork at him and cut his arm open. You ask the wife to come outside and talk with her in the driveway. She admits to intentionally throwing the fork at her husband because he spends too much time playing Call of Duty. You arrest the wife. While writing your report you remember that you did not read the wife her Miranda Rights and now question the admissibility of her confession. Were you required to read her Miranda before you questioned her?
NO
When the confession was made, the wife was not in custody and therefore Miranda does not apply.
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/384/436/
“The prosecution may not use statements, whether exculpatory or inculpatory, stemming from custodial interrogation of the defendant unless it demonstrates the use of procedural safeguards effective to secure the privilege against self-incrimination. By custodial interrogation, we mean questioning initiated by law enforcement officers after a person has been taken into custody or otherwise deprived of his freedom of action in any significant way..."
You stop a car for a head light violation. During the stop the front seat passenger tells you she is leaving and gets out of the car. Are passengers seized, like the driver, during a legal traffic stop?
YES
Brendlin v. California
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/551/249/
When police make a traffic stop, a passenger in the car, like the driver, is seized for Fourth Amendment purposes and so may challenge the stop’s constitutionality.
You are called to a juvenile disturbance call at a residence. Once invited into the home by the mother, she grants permission to search her 15 yr old son's room for drugs. The 15yr old denies consent. Are you legally justified in searching the 15 yr old's room?
YES
Generally, a parent can grant consent to search a child's room, particularly a minor child, even if the child objects to the search.
Jacobs v. State 681 S.W.2d 119
How must a person in custody "waive" their rights under Miranda?
knowing, voluntary, and in an intelligent manner
Under the Fifth Amendment, any statements that a defendant in custody makes during an interrogation are admissible as evidence at a criminal trial only if law enforcement told the defendant of the right to remain silent and the right to speak with an attorney before the interrogation started, and the rights were either exercised or waived in a knowing, voluntary, and intelligent manner.
You are a grave yard car driving through an area of the city recently hit with dozens of vehicle burglaries. While doing so, you round a corner and see a person walking toward you down the sidewalk in jeans and a short sleeve shirt. The person abruptly turns around and begins to walk the other way and takes off in a full sprint away from you. You did not witness any crime. Can you legally stop this person?
YES
Illinois v. Wardlow
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/528/119/
An individual's presence in a "high crime area," standing alone, is not enough to support a reasonable, particularized suspicion of criminal activity, but a location's characteristics are relevant in determining whether the circumstances are sufficiently suspicious to warrant further investigation, Adams v. Williams, 407 U. S. 143,144,147-148. In this case, moreover, it was also Wardlow's unprovoked flight that aroused the officers' suspicion. (Two things are required to justify the stop: High crime area and unprovoked flight)
A mother calls and reports her adult daughter was doing drugs in the back yard and she wants her to leave. You investigate and find out the adult daughter has been given permission by mom to live in a tent in the back yard. You smell marijuana coming from the tent and want to search it but the daughter denies consent. Can you legally search the tent without a warrant or consent?
No
People v. Hughston 168 Cal App. 4th 1062
As long as the tent is legally erected, it counts as a residence.
How must the Miranda right to counsel be invoked by the person subject to custody and interrogation?
A. Assuredly
B. With Certainty
C. Unequivocally
D. Unambiguously
D. Unambiguously
The Miranda right to counsel must be invoked unambiguously
See:
Berghuis v. Thompkins