Practical case law analysis, officer-safety guidance, and legal updates written for today's law enforcement professionals.
231 articles
Here is the question: Can an officer reach slightly into a person s home to pull them out and arrest them? If an officer has probable cause, but no arrest warrant, and the person opens up the door, they re talking to the officer, and the suspect is just an inch inside his house, would it be
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Officers are taught that Miranda kicks in when a person is not free to leave. That is not the standard, and saying so in court can cost you. The three components that actually trigger it.
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This question comes from an officer in Kansas. What are the requirements for consent to search a cellphone? What happened when officers asked the kids for their phones? The situation was; several officers stopped some young kids that were suspected of throwing rocks from an overpass onto a car. The officers noticed that they had
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This question came in from an officer in Indiana: would the single purpose container doctrine allow cops to search a vehicle s hidden compartment? The answer starts with what a single purpose container actually is, and then works back to the compartment. What is a single purpose container? All right guys, welcome to another roadside chat.
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This question came from an officer in New Jersey. Can police search the trunk of a car on the motor vehicle exception? What were the facts of this New Jersey trunk search? The hypothetical goes something like this: patrol was notified of a suspicious person and vehicle. They found a male under the influence of
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Today s question is one that I get all the time around the country and it s important. So let s go through it. Can you get consent to search a home from a spouse, even if the non- consenting spouse has left? The answer is, “Yes you can.” You can use that consent even if there is
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Today s question is, What is a cat out of the bag search? Is a private search a Fourth Amendment search? This ties in with private searches. Just to remind you, a private search is not a Fourth Amendment search. It does not have to be reasonable. We don t care if it would offend the Fourth
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What is the difference between reasonable suspicion and probable cause? It s a great question, because even the courts struggle with defining the difference. There is no one definition that s in the legal dictionary, so let’s look at them separately. What is the difference between a hunch and reasonable suspicion? First of all, we have to
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Here is a question that we frequently encounter: Will a “No Trespassing” sign and a closed gate prohibit you from doing a knock and talk? Let me give you some context here. Some deputies in a rural setting want to do a knock and talk on a burglary suspect. They don t have probable cause to
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