Arrest and Detention

Question 1

What’s the short term of a voluntary encounter?

Answer 1

Free to leave in this encounter.

Question 2

What’s the meaning and/or the short term for the exclusionary rule?

Answer 2

A legal doctrine that prevents illegally obtained evidence from being used in court. (renders it inadmissible), ILLEGAL).

Question 3

What’s the short term for a terry frisk?

Answer 3

Pat down of outer clothing.

Question 4

What’s the short term for a hot pursuit?

Answer 4

Exception to the warrant requirement.

Question 5

What’s the short term for jurisdiction?

Answer 5

Geographical or subject matter.

Question 6

What’s the meaning and/or the short term for probable cause?

Answer 6

That which leads a police officer to believe an offense has been committed or is being committed and the suspect committed it (level of suspicion for arrest).

Question 7

What’s the meaning and/or the short term for reasonable suspicion?

Answer 7

Where any reasonable person would suspect that a crime was in the process of being committed, had been committed or was going to be committed very soon (level of suspicion for stop).

Question 8

What’s the meaning and/or the short term for seizure?

Answer 8

NOT FREE TO LEAVE.

Question 9

What’s the meaning and/or the short term for “big picture”

Answer 9

The totality of circumstances.

Question 10

What’s the meaning and/or the short term for an investigatory stop or detention?

Answer 10

Requires reasonable suspicion.

Question 11

What are the three types of police encounters with the citizens?

Answer 11

Voluntary encounter, investigatory stop, and arrest.

Question 12

What are the two ways an officer will have seized a person or gained their compliance?

Answer 12

Show of legal authority and physical restraint.

Question 13

How does the US Supreme Court determine if the officer’s actions were “reasonable” under the 4th Amendment?

Answer 13

Reasonable man test + the totality of circumstances.

Question 14

What are the five police behaviors that constitute a seizure?

Answer 14

Arrest, traffic stop, detained/handcuffed, deadly force, show of force (or verbal command).

Question 15

What are the three exceptions to the warrant requirement that allow a police officer to enter a residence without a warrant to arrest a suspect?

Answer 15

Hot pursuit, threat to evidence, and imminent danger solely.

Question 16

At what level do you need to be at for a trial?

Answer 16

Beyond a reasonable doubt.

Question 17

What does the motion to suppress mean?

Answer 17

Throw(n) out.

Question 18

The 4th amendment protects…?

Answer 18

The person and their effects+.

Question 19

The 5th Amendment protects individuals from…?

Answer 19

Self-incrimination, double jeopardy (being put on trial twice), and the taking of private property without just compensation.

Question 20

Two police officers are assigned to a drug task force and are assigned to work at the airport. They receive information that a John Smith will arrive on Delta Flight 994 at Rapid City and he will have cocaine in his carry-on bag. They have the Drug K9 unit meet them at the airport prior to the arrival of the flight. When the passengers exit the plane, they observe John Smith with a carry-on bag. They confront Smith and take his bag and allow the canine to smell the bag. According to US vs. Place, is the act of the canine smelling the bag considered a search?

Answer 20

No, there isn’t a search involved with the dog sniffing the bag. The Supreme Court determined in US v. Place that when a canine sniff of luggage does not violate a person’s reasonable expectation of privacy, it is not a search. The court reasoned that a dog’s detect reveals only about the existence of contraband, not the contents of the bag.

Question 21

Two drug task force officers are watching a house for drug activity. They watch a Jeep come to the house and the driver goes inside. A passenger waits in the jeep. A few minutes later the driver comes out and leaves in the jeep. The officers follow. At the next intersection they stop the jeep. The driver had not committed a traffic offense. Did the officers seize the occupants of the vehicle pursuant to the 4th amendment? What level of suspicion does the officer need to stop this vehicle? In these circumstances, were the officers justified in stopping the vehicle? Articulate and justify your answer.

Answer 21

No, under the 4th Amendment the officials did not seize the vehicle’s occupants. Though they stopped the vehicle, their stop was not justified. The law enforcement officers lacked reasonable suspicion to believe a crime had been committed or is currently under progress. Just observing someone go into and out of a house does not offer enough justification for a stop, particularly in absence of further proof of illegal behavior.

Question 22

An officer receives a call that a home is being burglarized. When he arrives a white male runs from the back door carrying a TV set. The officer tells the suspect to stop and he refuses. The officer shoots the suspect. Is the amount of force the officer used to stop the suspect unreasonable under the 4th Amendment? In another case, an officer uses a “pit” maneuver to stop a car chase from entering a school zone. Is that action reasonable or unreasonable?

Answer 22

The amount of force the officer used to stop the suspected burglar is unreasonable under the 4th Amendment if the officer had alternative means of apprehending the suspect without using deadly force and not investigating further before executing such deadly force. Regarding the car chase, though, an officer’s use of a “pit” maneuver to stop a car chase from entering a school zone, while potentially risky, can be considered reasonable under certain circumstances, such as when the suspect poses an imminent threat to the safety of children or others as it could.

Question 23

There have been a series of robberies where the suspect used a gun at the casinos in Rapid City. The task force investigating the robberies decides to stake out casinos and watch for suspicious activity. On one stakeout the detectives notice a white male walk by the front of the casino several times without going in. The white male would stop and try to see in the door and look around outside to see if people were watching him. The officers decide to confront the man. When they approach him, they grab him and pat down his jacket pockets to make sure he hasn’t got a gun. They find a handgun. Were the officer’s justified in stopping and patting down this man? Justify your answer.

Answer 23

The officers were justified in stopping and patting down the man. His suspicious behavior, such as repeatedly walking by the casino without entering, peering through the door, and looking around for surveillance, raised reasonable suspicion that he may be planning or involved in criminal activity. Given the recent series of robberies, the officers’ actions were necessary to ensure public safety and prevent any potential harm.

Question 24

An officer stops a car for suspicion of drunken driving by the driver. He has the driver exit the vehicle. He questions the driver and then has him sit in his patrol car while he checks his driving history. The check comes back that the driver does not have a license. He is not drunk but is driving without a license. The officer arrests the driver. Can the officer search the interior of the car incident to arrest? Why or why not?

Answer 24

The police officer cannot investigate the inside of the car while arresting the person inside. The driver was pulled over for driving without a license, which is not a felony. The officer also didn’t have enough evidence to think the driver was involved in a felony or that the car had proof of a crime. So, the search would be against the laws.