Search & Seizure? Not on their watch!

The Supreme Court has decided that the 4th Amendment is now even more strict when it comes to the search & seizure of a person's vehicle. No longer can a Police Officer search a vehicle once the suspect is detained and out of reach of the vehicle's passenger compartment or other such similar areas of the vehicle. In other words, a Police Officer can no longer pull a civilian over for a tail-light and have it turn into a drug possession charge or other hard offense. This is basically what the Supreme Court is saying. Why don't they just buy up 10,000 billboards across the country and have them plastered with "Attention criminals! It is now easier to get away with transporting your illegal drugs and weapons!" Thanks, but no thanks. For those officer's of the law who I hold with a higher standard, I offer you some cupcake tiptoe solutions to this.

Think back to your academy training. Those long, tedious, brain-wrenching days spent listening to your Commander or Instructor speak to you about laws and rules and regulations and you can do this but you can't do that. Think back to when you had that all fresh in your mind, and remember those special words... "Plain View Doctrine" and "Reasonable Suspicion".

Since the start of the Plain View Doctrine, it has been ever so conveniently expanded to include plain smell, plain touch and plain hearing. We aren't going to go into the details of the three (3) requirements that an officer must have in order for an item seized under the Plain View Doctrine to be admissible in court and used as evidence, simply because any officer who knows about this doctrine knows exactly what I'm talking about. So let those bloodhound senses go to work, put a little extra "umph" into sniffing out that bag of marijuana, or catching a glimpse of that little bit of cocaine on the floor or seat. Use it to your advantage. Don't let the Supreme Court take away what enables you to clean the streets, just don't abuse it. Lord knows what they'll try to take from us next.

Next, Reasonable Suspicion. Oh this is a good one. Is it just me, or did every Law Enforcement Officer in the United States of America just become a little bit more suspicious of what's really going on in that vehicle? I think they did. "Why?", you ask? Simple. I think it's going to be to the advantage of every Officer to find suspicion beyond a reasonable doubt to search just about any vehicle that they deem necessary. From a simple hesitation out of a civilian/suspect to put their hands up or comply to a safety command, to a civilian/suspect tussling under a seat, it all sounds like "reasonable suspicion" to me.

Not trying to test the waters and end up with a Civil Rights violation and end up in Federal Court? Than take all this with a grain of salt, but I'm not going to let the death of someone else or the sale of drugs to a minor (or anyone for that matter) rest on my conscience, nor let it happen on my watch. If you're understanding the points I am trying to make, and you're not going to sit around and let that #1 leading method of turning a good ol' fashioned "traffic stop" into a merit earning drug bust, than feel free to leave me a comment and support your fellow officers in cleaning up the streets of America and say "Not on my watch!"

Looking for more info on the Supreme Court's ruling? Go here:

http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/article994500.ece