Practical case law analysis, officer-safety guidance, and legal updates written for today's law enforcement professionals.
231 articles
What evidence can I use from a private search? Well, the short answer is: all of it. Here is why: a private search is when a person searches or seizes something and there s no government involvement. Now, the general rule is that if there is no government involvement, you can use any evidence that they
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What is the stale misdemeanor rule? The stale misdemeanor rule is a common law doctrine. It essentially means that a crime was committed within the officer s presence, and he or she could arrest that person right then and there, but waits, and doesn t arrest yet. If he then arrests sometime down the road, let s say
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Here s a question from Texas. The officer says, If I get consent to search a vehicle, does the traffic stop have to end before I can search? And the answer is”No.” Consent includes with it the agreement to extend the traffic stop. Does that make sense? We know that when it comes to traffic stops,
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This question comes from an officer in the great state of Texas. Maybe it s the Great Republic of Texas. (I don t know, technically, if that’s what they call it down there.) This officer has a great scenario. Basically the question is: Can an intoxicated owner of a vehicle give consent to search? (Right, despite being
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Anthony Bandiero here, bringing you another question and answer. This one is from an officer in New York. The question is, when officers respond to an OD, and the person is revived, can you take their cell phone as evidence? You want to see who the dealer is, because that s the person who could potentially
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LONG TERM STAY EVICTION Hello again. This is Anthony Bandiero, attorney and senior legal instructor for Blue to Gold Law Enforcement Training, bringing a question from the great state of Idaho, which is going to be my future residence one day. This question is, “Can police evict tenants or occupants from a long term stay
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This question comes from an officer in Florida. And he asks, “Have courts relaxed the manipulation rule under Terry patdowns?” What the officer’s talking about here is a case that s called Minnesota versus Dickerson, US Supreme Court. Basically what happened there was that officers patted down Dickerson and they felt an item in his pocket
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This question comes from an officer in Alabama. And basically, the question is: Can cops use binoculars to view suspects in a public area? They want to see, for example, sales of narcotics, and so forth. Now, does the officer need probable cause to do that? Does the cop need probable cause to make contact
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Today s question comes from an officer in Utah, and the officer basically asked, “Do we need a warrant for a death investigation?” Let s go through this. The officer says, “Look, we we get into the house because we have exigency. You know that there s somebody deceased in the home.” Let s say that the cleaning person
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