The Law Of Search Incident To Arrest For Cars

Things develop fairly quickly once law enforcement officials make an arrest

. Normally, the one being detained doesnt have enough time to take into consideration what his rights are considering the conditions are intimidating. It is, subsequently, essential that you know about your rights at any time you are detained. When you're detained in or in the proximity of your motor vehicle then you'll need to be familiar with how and to what magnitude police officers can lawfully search your automobile in the course of your charge.

In April 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court published a decision in the case of Arizona v. Gant which clarified the power of the police to conduct a search of a motor vehicle incident to an arrest. The Court ruled that except when law enforcement possess a correctly executed search warrant for the vehicle during the time of the arrest, that the law enforcement are only able to search the auto if:

The suspect may possibly reach for a weapon.

The suspect may try and destroy evidence; or

It may be reasonable for police officers to believe that there's evidence in the motor vehicle that supports the criminal offense that a person is being arrested.

The Court emphasized that searches executed without a search warrant are presumptively unlawful and therefore a search of a car incident to an arrest is an exception to that standard rule. Due to the fact a search of a automobile incident to an arrest is an exception to the guideline, only very limited searches may be permitted.

This ruling reduces the law enforcement communitys explanation of the 1981 Supreme Court verdict in New York v. Belton. Police officers, relying on the Belton ruling, were routinely searching the passenger compartment of autos each time a driver or passenger of a automobile was detained. This warrantless search was performed anytime an arrest was made without regard to whether the defendant was in a situation to reach for a weapon or destroy evidence and without consideration to whether there seemed to be grounds to consider that there was evidence in the car or truck supporting the charge.

The Court's decision in Arizona v. Gant calls for officers to reconsider when they may rightly search autos at the time of an arrest. For example, when the defendant has been charged and is without risk in police custody then the first couple of exceptions would not apply because it's no longer possible for the defendant to grab for a weapon or try to damage evidence in the automobile. Whether the third exception may apply depends on the reason behind the arrest. If the suspect is arrested for a traffic offense for instance drunk driving, for example, then the police officers could not search the car to discover if there is evidence associated with a new robbery in the neighborhood because the suspect was not charged with a burglary but rather for driving while intoxicated.

The Supreme Court's more recent ruling makes clear that the old procedures of routine car searches incident to an arrest is illegal. Rather, searches may only happen in particular defined occasions. It is a ruling that police have criticized and that criminal lawyers have welcomed.

by: Jamel Grinman

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