Ch. 2 Flashcards
Regardless of the crime being investigated and the law enforcement officer acting as an investigator, all investigations must be carried out in a legal- as well as ____ __ _____ -manner.
Moral and ethical
Laws that govern proper procedures for investigations in arresting suspects, searching crime scenes, and seizing property as evidence are referred to as _______ ________ ____.
Criminal procedural laws
Investigators must be mindful of _____ ______ ____, which define the legal requirements that have to be met to determine whether a crime has been committed, and whether a given suspect is guilty or innocent of a specific criminal act.
Substantive criminal laws
Four primary goals of carrying out a criminal investigation.
- To establish that a crime has been committed
- To gather evidence or proof of the crime
- To identify and arrest suspects
- To build a case for trial
The first legal requirement that must be satisfied in order for a criminal investigation to proceed is determining the ____ ____ of a suspected criminal activity.
Corpus delicti
These are factual requirements of a crime that must be demonstrated and supported by evidence obtained during the investigation.
Elements of the crime
There are four levels of mental criminal responsibility that can be proven or disproven through investigative evidence.
Purposeful
Knowing
Reckless
Negligent
An investigator must satisfy the requirements of ______ ______ to initiate the investigative process, and those of _____ _____ to conduct formal searches and arrests- barring exceptions established by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Reasonable Suspicion
Probable Cause
_______ _______ exists when a particular situation would lead an officer to suspect that a crime is being committed, is about to be committed, or has already taken place.
Reasonable Suspicion
The legal standard to arrest when an officer has a reasonable belief a crime has occurred and the accused has violated the elements of a certain crime.
Probable Cause
Officers may use any and all legally relevant facts and observations that they have gained(including ____ from third parties) to justify their suspicions or beliefs regarding an alleged criminal offense or offender also known as _____ __ __ ______.
Hearsay
Totality of the Circumstances
To justify the need for a warrant, the investigator must prepare a _____ __ ______ _____ outlining all the factual circumstances supporting the officer’s belief that the person, place, or thing is the target of the intended search is somehow related to a specific criminal activity.
Statement of probable cause
According to rules of law outlined in ______ v ____ (1983), a search warrant can be issued only after a judge determine from the facts presented in the affidavit that the totality of the circumstances suggests the existence of probable cause.
Illinois v Gates
As a general rule, descriptions in _____ ______ should provide enough detail to enable an officer with no knowledge of the case to effectively serve the warrant without encountering difficulties locating the place(s), recognizing the vehicle(s), or identifying the person(s) to be searched.
Search warrants
_____ __ ____ warrants authorize law enforcement officers to enter private property without the permission or knowledge of its occupants and to search for (but not seize) evidence, and afterwards return with a proper search warrant.
Sneak and Peak
The Forth amendment allows Warrantless Searches by law enforcement in certain situations, these include:
- Voluntary consent to search provided by the suspect
- exigent circumstances
- stop and frisk searches
- Search incident to arrest
- “Special circumstances” searches
Stop and Frisk
It must also be remembered that the primary legal purpose of this type of search is _____ _____, not Suspicion alone.
Officer safety
Regardless of whether the vehicle to be searched is motorized or not, so long as that vehicle is considered mobile, it falls within the ____ ____ _______ ____.
Motor vehicle exception rule
Types of special circumstances searches:
- Open fields
- Abandoned property
- Probation/parole searches
- School searches
- Patriot Act searches
The _____ ___ also allows for the use of special administrative subpoenas called ____ ____ ____,which require persons to provide private information for government investigations involving suspected terrorist activity.
Patriot Act
National Security Letters
This ruling states that evidence secured by illegal means and in bad faith cannot be introduced in a criminal trial.
Exclusionary rule
If evidence is obtained without a warrant and it is later determined that the evidence eventually would have been discovered as the result of a legal ongoing search, such evidence can be used in court against an accused suspect under the rule of ______ ______.
Inevitable discovery
Good faith exceptions ______ be granted if officers improperly execute the search warrant, provide false information to the judge, or do not substantiate enough information on the search warrant to establish its legal validity.
Cannot
Identifying and arresting suspects, three progressive levels of legal contact that they can make with such individuals:
- Consensual encounter
- Detention
- Arrest
A law enforcement officer has no authority during a _____ _____ to search the person they are speaking with, unless either reasonable suspicion or probable cause is established at some point during the discussion.
Consensual contact
The legal purpose of a _____ is to provide the officer an opportunity to ensure his or her own safety(as in a stop n frisk) and to briefly investigate the circumstances to determine whether a crime has been committed and, if so, whether the individual detained is somehow involved in its commission.
Detention
What are the various forms of evidence investigators can use in preparation of a case:
Each of these forms of evidence can prove the facts of the case:
- Physical or “real” evidence
- Documentary evidence
- Testimonial evidence
- Direct evidence
- Circumstantial evidence
- Corroborative evidence
- Cumulative evidence
