4th Amendment Searches and Seizures Flashcards
The plain view doctrine allows a police officer to seize objects not described in a warrant when executing a lawful search or seizure if he observes the object in plain view and has probable cause to believe that it is connected with criminal activities. The incriminating character of the object should be immediately identifiable. **Evidence in a container can not possibly be identified by plain observation or touch and therefore should not be seized unless it is listed in the warrant.
Analogously, plain feel doctrine applies in pat-down searches when an officer by plain feel of the outside of clothes reasonably believes an item in the person’s pocket is a contraband or evidence.
Warrantless Arrest
A police officer may make a warrantles arrest for a crime or misdemeanor if the crime/misdemeanor was committed in her presence.
Search incident to arrest
If incident to a lawful arrest, the police offier may search the person and areas into which the person might reach to obtain weapons or destroy evidence.
A pretextual stop or arrest usually occurs when the police, after realizing that they lack a founded suuspciaon to search an automoblile, attempt to justify a search by stopping a vehicle and/or arresting the person for some minor or technical traffic infraction. Courts do not allow the police to circumvent the protection of the 4th amendment rihts in this manner and will not validate these types of searches.
Generally held applicable mostly in cases involving automobile searches.
A Terry stop in the United States allows the police to briefly detain a person based on reasonable suspicion of involvement in criminal activity. Reasonable suspicion is a lower standard than probable cause which is needed for arrest. When police stop and search a pedestrian, this is commonly known as a stop and frisk.
A Terry stop is another name for stop and frisk; the name was generated from the U.S Supreme Court case Terry v. Ohio. When a police officer has a reasonable suspicion that an individual is armed, engaged, or about to be engaged, in criminal conduct, the officer may briefly stop and detain an individual for a pat-down search of outer clothing. A Terry stop is a seizure within the meaning of Fourth Amendment.
In a traffic stop setting, the Terry condition of a lawful investigatory stop is met whenever it is lawful for the police to detain an automobile and its occupants pending inquiry into a vehicular violation. The police do not need to believe that any occupant of the vehicle is involved in criminal activity.
In a recent case, Floyd v. City of New York 813 F. Supp.2d 417 (2011), the court held the New York stop-and-frisk policy violated the Fourth Amendment because it rendered stop and frisks more frequent for blacks and Hispanics.
