Searching a Traffic Violators Car, Police Must Have Issue, a Criminal Defense Lawyer Pleased With New Ruling
Tampa criminal lawyers are celebrating a small victory for the fourth amendment. This past April, the United States Supreme Court said police may no longer routinely search the vehicles of recently arrested persons, a practice that was widely considered constitutional for nearly three decades.
The law had stated that warrants were not required for “searches incident to arrest” because they may be necessary to prevent an arrestee from grabbing weapons or concealing evidence of their crimes in some way. However, if the person has already been arrested and placed in a police cruiser, neither of these concerns seems plausible; therefore a search of that person’s vehicle is now deemed unlawful.
On the other hand, most searches of vehicles have been before a person has been arrested and removed from their vehicle. Realizing this, the Court ruled in April in favor of police “searching a vehicle incident to a recent occupant’s arrest only when the arrestee is unsecured and within reaching distance of the passenger compartment at the time of the search”. The ruling went on to add that a search could also be justified if police are looking for evidence that a crime led them to the arrest – such as a high speed chase after an attempted stop – a rationale that does not apply to the millions of traffic violations the majority of people who are stopped each year receive.
A Tampa criminal defense lawyer believes that such a ruling, which gives police the power to search a person’s vehicle whenever that person is caught in a traffic violation, is a serious and re-occurring threat to the privacy of countless individuals. This is part of a statement Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the majority. He also noted that there is a danger of giving police “unbridled discretion to rummage at will through a person’s private personal property”.
If you believe your rights have been violated by an unlawful search during a routine traffic stop, then contact a criminal defense attorney to help protect your rights under the law because police officers for all they do can still make mistakes in an overzealous hunt for justice.