Exceptions to Warrant Requirements Flashcards
Exceptions to Warrants
E - Exigent Circumstances S - Search incident to arrest C - Consent A - Automobile P - Plain View I - Inventory S - Special Needs T - Terry "Stop and Frisk"
Exigent Circumstances Exception
Three types:
- Evanescent Evidence - Evidence would dissipate or disappear (Ex. Scraping under fingernails)
- Hot pursuit of fleeing felon
- “Emergency Aid” Exception
Search Incident to Arrest Exception
- Arrest must be lawful
- Justifications:
- Officer safety, and
- the need to preserve evidence - *Timing: The search must be contemporaneous in time and place with the arrest
- Geographic scope: the wingspan, which includes the body, clothing and any containers within the arrestee’s immediate control without regard to the arrest was made.
Automobile searched incident to a custodial arrest
Search of automobile incident to a custodial arrest:
- Permissible Scope: Interior cabin including closed containers but not in the trunk.
- Secured vs. Unsecured Arrestee” Once an officer has “secured” an arrestee, the officer can search the vehicle ONLY IF she has reason to believe it will contain evidence relating to the crime for which the arrest was made.
Consent exception
Standard: Consent must be VOLUNTARY AND INTELLIGENT
Scope: An officer’s consent to search extends to all areas for which a reasonable officer would believe permission to search was granted.
*Apparent Authority - Still okay for consent - Provided officer reasonably believed that the consenting party had “actual authority”
Automobile Exception
Standard: Police officers need PC to believe that contraband or evidence of crime will be found in the vehicle.
Scope: The entire car and they may open ANY package, luggage, or other container that may reasonably contain the item(s) for which there was PC to search.
- Traffice Stop - Search can be lawful so long as PC acquired before the search.
ex. Drug dog alerts to smell of drugs
3 Requirements for Plain View Exception
- Lawful access to the place from which the item can be seen,
- Lawful access to the item itself, and
- The criminality of the item must be immediately apparent
Inventory Exception
Inventory searches most commonly occur in 2 contexts:
- Arrestees: When booked into jail
- Vehicles: when they’re impounded
Special Needs Exception
- *Random Drug Testing: Railroad employees following impact accident; Customs agents in drug interdiction; Public school children in any extracurricular activity, Railroad Employees following an impact accident
- Government employee’s desks and files - work related misconduct
- Student’s “effects” in public schools - violations of school rules
- Border searches - no privacy with respect to border searches of persons and effects
- Parolees- warrantless search of parolee and his home ok if a state statute provides that it is a condition of parole.
- Parolee has diminished expectation of privacy
Terry Stop
It is a brief detention of “seizure” for the purpose of investigating suspicious conduct.
*Can take place anywhere
Terry Frisk
It is a pat-down of the body and outer clothing for weapons that is justified by an officer’s belief that a suspect is armed and dangerous.
- If an officer finds a weapon, it can always be seized
- If the officer instead finds something she recognizes as contraband without manipulating the object, she can seize it as well.
Hot Pursuit of Fleeing Felon Exception
- Hot pursuits allows police to enter a suspect’s home or that of a 3rd party to search for a fleeing felon.
- Any evidence in plain view while searching for suspect is admissible
Emergency Aid
Police can enter without warrant if there is an objectively reasonable basis for believing that a person inside is in need of emergency aid to address or prevent injury
Consent of Shared Premises
(1) When adults share residence any resident can consent to a search of common areas within it
(2) However, if they disagree regarding consent to search common areas, the objecting party prevails as to areas which they share dominion and control
3 Requirements for Inventory Searches to be Constitutional
- Regulations governing them are reasonable in scope
- The search itself complies with those regulations
- The search is conducted in good faith, motivated solely by the need