Practical case law analysis, officer-safety guidance, and legal updates written for today's law enforcement professionals.
231 articles
Anthony Bandiero here. The question I have for you is: Can officers go into the backyard when they re serving an arrest warrant and not violate curtilage? The answer is, “Yes,” officers can do it. And here s why. First of all, from the Supreme Court s perspective, the back yard is typically treated like the home itself.
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This is a commentary on Caniglia v. Strom, US Supreme Court, May 17, 2021. This is a massively, important case on two fronts. Number one: firearm confiscation and red flag laws. Number two: a little more guidance on the so called Community Caretaking Doctrine as it applies to homes. Why did officers enter a home
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Yes in a motel hallway, no in an apartment hallway. Neither is curtilage, but courts find a reasonable expectation of privacy in the apartment hallway because that is a traditional home.
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Our next topic is: How do you handle misdemeanor crimes that are not committed in your presence? Many states have a misdemeanor restriction that you cannot make an arrest for a mis-demeanor that was not committed in your presence. Now, all of those states that have this restriction also have some exceptions. For example: DUI,
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Our next question is: Can you run the serial number of a firearm that you are holding during a traffic stop? The answer is; most likely, but there are some caveats I want to go over. Can you take a gun from a lawfully armed driver during a traffic stop? First of all, we do
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Today we are going to answer a question that a lot of you have on your mind. Can you search a vehicle’s passenger for marijuana? And the answer is: probably. However, I have to go into some legal reasoning here because the answer is really not that clear. There are two key cases I want
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The question of the day is: Can officers lie during a knock and talk? The answer is, “Yes.” Certainly officers are not required to share all their inner secrets about an investigation with an occupant. So that s not a problem. Courts have upheld deception during investigations for centuries. But I want to transition to another
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Today s question is: Can you run a canine in a motel parking lot? The short answer is yes, you can, and here s why. A person that is staying at a hotel does not usually have any reasonable expectation of privacy in the parking lot. Think about it. When you go to stay at a Hilton
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What is plain view? Plain view is nothing more than right to be, right to see. That s the simplicity of it: right to be, right to see, hear and smell. So basically, the idea here is that if you are lawfully present, there is no search under the Fourth Amendment if you are simply using
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