Unit Two, Lesson One
Legal Concepts
Search and
Seizure
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure
Objectives
• Constitutional guarantees related to search
and seizure
• Define Search
• Define Seizure
• Define Search Warrant
• Search warrant legal
requirements
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure
Objectives
• Exclusionary rule
• Good faith doctrine
• Exceptions to the search warrant
requirement
• Abandoned property
• Open Fields
• Plain View
• Probable Cause Search
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure
Objectives
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Exigent circumstances exception
Terry frisk
Plain fell doctrine
Search incident to arrest
Consent exception
Vehicle inventory
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure
Objectives
• Proper scope of a search
• Items that may be seized
• Florida Forfeiture and Contraband Act
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure
4th Amendment Guarantees
• Protect people from governmental intrusion
in areas where there is a reasonable
expectation of privacy
• Prohibits searches and
seizures unless they are
conducted with probable
cause and under
reasonable circumstances.
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure
4th Amendment
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure
Search
• Government intrusion into a place where a
person has a reasonable expectation of
privacy
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure
Search Warrants
• 4th requires officers to obtain a search
warrant where the individual has a
reasonable
expectation of
privacy
• Always consider
getting a search
warrant
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure
Search Warrant
• Court order authorizing a law enforcement
officer to conduct a search
– Legal requirements
• Authorized and signed by a neutral magistrate or judge
• Based on an affidavit (sworn statement) sufficient to
establish probable cause that evidence will be found ina
particular place
• Information must come
from reliable sources
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure
Search Warrant
• Totality of the circumstances
– Probable cause considers all of the information
available
• “Staleness” of the information
– Courts consider how old the
information is
• Do not wait, do not leave
any information out
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure
Search Warrant
• Describes the exact person or place to be
searched
– Detailed description
– Include photos
– Include directions from a known landmark
• Warrant is only valid for the place named
• Describe in detail who or what is to be
seized
– “Drugs” is not enough
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure
1021 Eastlanding Road
Port Orange, FL
Building 7
Apartment 121
Apartment photo
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure
Exclusionary Rule
• Evidence obtained by the government in
violation of the Constitution cannot be used
as evidence in court
– Purpose is to discourage
officers from violating
rights during
investigations
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure
Good Faith Doctrine
• Applies to officers actions in conducting a
search with a search warrant
– If you execute a warrant that you believe to be
valid,
– The court later determines
that there is a legal error,
– Evidence may still be admitted
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure
Search Warrant Requirement
Exceptions
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Plain View
Mobile Conveyance
Destruction of Evidence
Fresh Pursuit
Emergency Scene
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure
Search Warrant Requirement
Exceptions
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Stop and Frisk
Incident to Arrest
Consent
Inventory
Administrative Searches
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure
Plain View
• Three conditions
– Officer is lawfully present
– Item is in plain sight
– Probable cause to believe that the item is
contraband or evidence
• Text examples:
– Sawyer v State, 2003
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure
Plain View
• Open Fields
– Item is in a location that is open to the public and
could be viewed by anyone
– Item is readily recognized as contraband or
evidence
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure
Mobile Conveyance
• Probable cause required
– Vehicles or other conveyances easily moved
– Lower expectation of privacy
– Probable cause required but can be searched
without a warrant
• Carroll Doctrine, Carroll v U.S. (1925)
– Search entire vehicle and all compartments, based
on Probable Cause
– Example – K-9 alert on a trunk
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure
Destruction of Evidence
• Probable Cause Required
• Exigent circumstances permit search
– Emergencies
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Destruction of evidence
Emergency scene
Fresh pursuit
Probable cause to believe that contraband or evidence is
in imminent danger of destruction
– Officer cannot create the exigent circumstances
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure
Fresh Pursuit
• To enter a private place while chasing a
suspect requires:
– Probable cause that the suspect committed a
serious crime
– Immediate or continuous pursuit
– Probable cause that the suspect is in the premises
that is to be entered
• Any contraband or evidence in plain view
can be seized
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure
Emergency Scene
• Probable cause required
– Make warrantless entry when emergency is present
– Public safety is paramount
– Crime scene may still require a warrant
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure
Stop and Frisk
• Terry v Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (1968)
– Law enforcement officer may search the exterior
clothing of someone lawfully detained if the
officer has reasonable suspicion to believe that the
person is armed
• Frisk or pat-down is not a full search
• Florida Stop and Frisk Law – 901.151 F.S.
– Case law downgrades the requirement from
probable cause to reasonable suspicion
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure
Stop and Frisk
• Terry stop
– Justified if the officer has reasonable suspicion that
the person is committing, has committed, or is
about to commit a criminal offense
– Detention cannot last any longer than is necessary
to dispel the suspicion
– Cannot be transported away from the immediate
area
– Must be able to articulate the suspicion in specific
terms
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure
Stop and Frisk
• Scope
– Limited to a pat-down of outer clothing, containers
and property carried
• Not restricted to the body
• Passenger compartment of a car may be “frisked”
– If something is discovered, can open the door to a
more extensive search
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure
Stop and Frisk
• Contraband
– If the officer finds what he or she knows to be
contraband, it can be seized and the person charged
• Plain touch and feel doctrine
– Does not have to feel like a weapon
– Does not permit the manipulation or groping of the
object to help identify it
– Based on training and experience
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure
Search Incident to Arrest
• Lawful arrest and custody
– May be searched without a warrant
– Supreme Court recognizes two historical rationales
• The need to disarm a suspect in order to take him or her
into custody
• The need to preserve evidence
– United States v Robinson,
414 U.S. 218 (1973)
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure
Search Incident to Arrest
• Two requirements
– Lawful custodial arrest
– Search is “substantially contemporaneous” (same
time) as the arrest
• Ten minutes may be okay
• An hour later will not
– Exception
• Officer safety
• Evidence preservation
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure
Search Incident to Arrest
• Requirement
– Custodial arrest
– May not search if the stop is for a traffic citation or
notice to appear
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure
Search Incident to Arrest
• Scope
– Within the immediate control of the arrestee
• Chimel v California, U.S. 752, (1969)
– May also include the vehicle in which the person
was a passenger just
before the arrest
• Thornton v U.S.
541 U.S. (2004)
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure
Search Incident to Arrest
• Entire passenger compartment rule
– New York v Belton, 453 U.S. 454 (1981)
– Driver arrested
• May search the entire passenger compartment including
locked or unlocked containers therein
• May not search the trunk of a sedan
• May search the rear area of an SUV or van
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure
Search Incident to Arrest
• Strip search
– Normally not allowed, only under certain
circumstances
• Must meet statutory requirements
• Includes written
supervisory permission
• Addressed in 901.211 F.S.
and agency policy
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure
Consent
• Probable cause not required
– May ask anyone for permission to search
• Knowledgeable and voluntary
• Evidence seized may be admitted
• Why do people give consent?
– Officer may assume they are not hiding anything
– May think that the officer
will not find contraband
• Burden of proof is on
the prosecution
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure
Consent
• Voluntary
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Unequivocal
Specific
Intelligently given
More than mere acquiescence
Gauged against the reasonable person under
similar circumstances
– Officers do not have to advise people that they
have the right to refuse
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure
Consent
• Implied consent
– Limited circumstances
• Airline passengers
• Patrons attending events
• Visitors to courthouses
and government buildings
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure
Consent
• Third party consent
– Mutual access
– Control over the area to be searched
• One may consent, but if another is present and objects,
no search
• Georgia v Randolph, 547 U.S. 103 (2006)
– Passenger may not consent to the search of a
driver’s vehicle unless he/she is the owner
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure
Consent
• Juveniles
– Consent of parent or guardian usually overrules
objection of the child
– Child may consent for warrantless entry to the
parent’s home
• Child shares the home
• Parent is not physically present
“Can you show me where Mommy
and Daddy keep the drugs?”
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure
Consent
• May be withdrawn at any time
– Search must stop
• Consent may be limited in scope
– Example: May be limited to the passenger
compartment but not the trunk
• Other means may be used as applicable:
Overlapping exceptions
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure
Inventory Search
• Probable cause not required
• Not designed as a search for evidence, but to
protect property and protect the agency
from claims of theft
– When arrested, the property must be inventoried
and secured
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure
Inventory Search
• Driver arrested
• Three options
– Parked, locked and left at the scene (agency
policy)
– Vehicle turned over to a friend or family member
– Vehicle is impounded
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Inventory required
Requires written documentation
Done at the time of the impoundment
Done in compliance with agency policy and procedure
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure
Administrative Search
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Probable cause not required
Students in school
People in government offices
Government property
Persons in certain businesses
Inspections
Follow agency policies
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure
Scope of Searches
• Limited to the items being searched for
• When items are found, search ends
• Nature of the search depends on what is
being searched for
– No elephants in the closets
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure
Items That May Be Searched for
and Seized
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Weapons
Fruits of the crime
Instruments of the crime
Contraband
Evidence
Items defined by statute
Suspects
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure
Florida Forfeiture and
Contraband Act 932.701 F.S.
– Authority to seize and forfeit contraband
• Illegal to possess
• Used in the commission of a felony
• Purchased with profits from felonious activity
– Forfeiture
• Civil action where the agency asked to court to transfer
ownership
• Agency sells the property at auction or uses it for LE
purposes
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure
Questions?
Daytona State College
School of Emergency Services
Legal
Search and Seizure