Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Police and Law

Legal Limitations on Police Investigations

• Bill of Rights embodies American values regarding individual rights
    * Judges must interpret the Constitution to balance crime control and individual rights.
• Search and seizure concepts
    * Search: actions by police that intrude on a person’s reasonable expectation of privacy.
    * Seizure: use of authority to deprive someone of liberty or property
      * e.g., arrest
    * A stop is a brief interference with a person’s freedom that can be measured in minutes, and police must have reasonable suspicion to stop most of the time.
• Plain view doctrine: permits officers to notice and use as evidence visible items

Use of force and the Fourth Amendment

• Tennessee v. Garner (1985):
    * police may not use deadly force in apprehending fleeing felons unless they must to keep the suspect from escaping and the officer has probable cause that the suspect poses a significant threat of death or serious physical injury.
      * Determined from the officer’s perspective (Graham)
• To arrest a suspect and take them into custody, the police need probable cause, showing that sufficient evidence exists to make it likely the suspect committed the crime.
    * Warrants require probable cause, affirmation by affidavit (states what happened), particular description
    * Probable cause is determined by the totality of the circumstances.

Warrantless Searches

• Special needs beyond the normal purposes of law enforcement
    * Airport metal detectors, sobriety checkpoints
• Stop and frisk on the streets
    * Terry v. Ohio: officer may frisk a person briefly stopped
• Search incident to a lawful arrest
    * Chimel v. California: allows weapon search during arrest
• Marilyn v. Keen (spelling?)
    * DNA cheek swabs
• Exigent circumstances
    * Immediate threat to public safety or evidence
• Consent search
    * Automobile searches (inventory)

Questioning suspects

• Fifth Amendment privilege against compelled self-incrimination discourages police officers from using violent or coercive means to force a confession.
• Miranda v. Arizona (1966): Suspects being taken into custody must be told four things before they are questioned.
    * They have the right to remain silent.
    * Any statement can and will be used against them.
    * They have the right to an attorney.
    * If they cannot afford an attorney, the state will provide one.
• There is an exception for public safety.
• Most interrogations must be videotaped.

Exclusionary Rule

• Illegally obtained evidence must be excluded from trial
    * Weeks v. United States (1914): established rule in federal prosecutions
    * Wolf v. Colorado (1949): incorporated the Fourth Amendment
    * Mapp v. Ohio (1961): applied to states
• Exceptions
    * Good faith (United States v. Leon)
      * Officer believes they’re following the proper procedures
    * Inevitable discovery (Nix v. Williams)