Police and the Rule of Law

1. Chapter Eight Police and the Rule of Law

2. Learning Objectives • Describe how the Fourth Amendment controls law enforcement officials • Define search and arrest • Distinguish between search warrants and arrest warrants • Explain when warrants are required • Recognize that there are three requirements that must be met before a warrant can be secured

3. Learning Objectives • Explain the rules for serving warrants • Discuss several types of warrantless searches and arrests • Explain the Miranda v. Arizona decision • Identify what purpose a lineup serves • Discuss the exclusionary rule, including its extensions and exceptions

4. Search and Seizure • The Fourth Amendment controls searches and seizures • Contains two parts: • The reasonableness clause • The warrants clause • Defining a search • What is not a “search” according to the Fourth Amendment? • Abandoned property • Open fields • Fly-overs

5. Search and Seizure • Defining an arrest • Arrest is a seizure under the Fourth Amendment • An arrest occurs when a police officer takes a person into custody or deprives a person of freedom for having allegedly committed a criminal offense

6. Search Warrants and Arrest Warrants • Search warrant • An order issued by a judge, directing officers to conduct a search of specified premises for specified objects • Arrest warrant • An order issued by a judge, directing officers to arrest a particular individual

7. Warrant Requirements • Warrants are required in two key situations: • Arrests and searches in private homes or on specific types of private property • Arrests for minor offenses committed out of view of the arresting officer

8. Warrant Requirements • Three requirements that must be met before a warrant can be secured: • Probable cause • Neutral and detached magistrate • Particularity

9. Warrant Requirements • Probable cause • Usually defined as a reasonable belief, based on fact, that a crime has been committed and that the person, place, or object to be searched and/or seized is linked to the crime with a reasonable degree of certainty • Sources of information for probable cause include firsthand knowledge, informants, anonymous tips, and telephone tips • Judges are considered to be neutral and detached

10. Warrant Requirements • Particularity • Concerned with specifically naming the items to be seized pursuant to a search or specifically naming the individual to be arrested pursuant to an arrest warrant

11. Serving the Warrant • Procedural steps • Knock and announce • Keep property damage to a minimum • Use appropriate force • Pay attention to time constraints with search warrants • Limit scope and manner of searches • No reporters allowed

12. Thinking Point • The procedural steps for serving a warrant are provided in the previous slide. • Thinking about representations in crime television shows, are the procedural steps for serving a warrant accurately represented? Which, if any, steps are missing? • What impact does this have on public perception?

13. Warrantless Searches and Arrests • The Supreme Court has carved out some significant exceptions to the warrant requirement of the Fourth Amendment, including: • Exigent circumstances • Stop and frisk • Searches incident to lawful arrest • Automobile searches • Consent searches • Searches based on plain view • Crimes committed in an officer’s presence

14. Exigent Circumstances • Exigent circumstances include: • Hot pursuit • Danger of escape • Threats to evidence • Threats to others

15. Stop and Frisk • Stop and frisk are two separate acts • Each requires that an officer have reasonable suspicion • Terry v. Ohio (Case states that searches for other reasons besides seizures of property are not protected by the Fourth Amendment) • Arizona v. Johnson (police may conduct a pat down search of a passenger in an automobile that has been lawfully stopped for a minor traffic violation, provided the police reasonably suspect the passenger is armed and dangerous)

16. Search Incident to a Lawful Arrest • The search must be conducted at the time of or immediately following the arrest • The police may search only the suspect and the area within the suspect’s immediate control

17. Automobile Searches • Automobiles can be searched without a warrant, so long as there is probable cause to search • Carroll v. United States • The Evolution of Carroll v. United States • Scope of the automobile search • Searching drivers and passengers • Pretext stops • Roadblock searches

18. Plain View • The plain view doctrine • The principle that evidence in plain view of police officers may be seized without a search warrant • If an officer is engaged in a lawful search and has probable cause that an item in plain view is subject to seizure, the item can be seized

19. Thinking Point • An automobile search can occur if probable cause exists. A full search of the car can include the driver, passengers, and closed containers found in the trunk. The search must be reasonable. • Do you agree with all aspects of this warrantless search? Why or why not? • What are some of the reasons behind this warrantless search?

20. Constitutional Protections • Fourth Amendment: • Search and Seizure Protections • Exclusionary Rule Fifth Amendment • Due Process • Miranda Warning • Indictment • Privilege Against Self-Incrimination • Double Jeopardy

21. Constitutional Protections • Sixth Amendment: • Speedy and Public Trial • Confront any witnesses • Attorney provided by the level of government charging a person with a crime. • Seventh Amendment: • In Civil Law suits, value over $20 has a right to a jury trial. • Clarifies Common Law. (Precident)

22. Constitutional Protections • Eighth Amendment: • Prohibits • Excessive Bail • Cruel and Unusual Punishment

23. Consent Searches • Consent searches • Do not require warrants or probable cause because the consenting party effectively waives his/her Fourth Amendment rights • Voluntariness • Third party consent • Bus sweeps • “Free to go”

24. Crimes Committed in the Officer’s Presence • If a person commits a crime in an officer’s presence, no warrant is necessary before an arrest is made

25. Electronic Surveillance • Katz v. United States • The key Supreme Court case dealing with electronic surveillance (extended Fourth Amendment protection to all areas where a person has a "reasonable expectation of privacy) • Important federal legislation governing interception of communication includes: • The Federal Wiretap Act • The Patriot Act • The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act

26. Electronic Surveillance • Recent electronic surveillance technologies that have benefited local law enforcement includes surveillance cameras and GPS tracking devices

27. Interrogation • Miranda v. Arizona • Requires that police officers advise people who are both in custody and interrogated of the constitutional right (from the Fifth Amendment) not to incriminate themselves

28. Thinking Point • Many of us know the Miranda Warning from watching law/criminal justice television shows. • Can you recite the Miranda Warning verbatim? • How much of the interrogation process that you see on television do you believe is representative of what actually occurs in real life interrogations?

29. Interrogation • Suspects who are advised of their Miranda rights are told: • They have the right to remain silent • If they decide to make a statement, the statement can and will be used against them in a court of law • They have the right to have an attorney present at the time of the interrogation, or they will have an opportunity to consult with an attorney • If they cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for them by the state

30. Interrogation • The Supreme Court has modified the Miranda rule to some extent over the years – mostly its decisions have relaxed the rule • The impact of Miranda on law enforcement, such as through lost convictions, is fairly minimal

31. Thinking Point • Do you believe the Miranda Warning is still necessary? Why or why not? • What are the potential impacts of eliminating the Miranda Warning?

32. Pretrial Identification • Booking is the administrative record of an arrest • Lists the offender’s name, address, physical description, date of birth, employer, time of arrest, offense, and name of arresting officer

33. Pretrial Identification • In a lineup, a suspect is placed in a group for the purpose of being viewed and identified by a witness • Lineups are one of the primary means that the police have of identifying suspects • One of the most difficult legal issues is determining whether the identification procedure is suggestive and consequently in violation of the due process clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments

34. The Exclusionary Rule • The exclusionary rule • Provides that all evidence obtained by illegal searches and seizures is inadmissible in criminal trials • Has been extended to include “fruit of the poisonous tree” or indirect evidence

35. The Exclusionary Rule • Three major exceptions: • Independent source • Good faith • Inevitable discovery • The Future of the Exclusionary Rule

36. Thinking Point • It is possible that the exclusionary rule permits the release of individuals that have indeed committed a serious crime. • Do you believe that preservation of this rule is paramount to balance the due process rights of individuals, despite the fact that a potentially guilty individual may go free as a result? Defend your position.