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Recent Posts
- W.D.N.C.: No REP in a police interview room
- TX2: No SW needed to get IMEI number of an abandoned cell phone to trace the owner
- W.D.Pa.: Affidavit for SW doesn’t have to say CI was reliable when the facts and circumstances alleged showed it
- S.D.N.Y.: GJ subpoena for cell phone passcode quashed.
- S.D.N.Y.: There’s a privacy interest in a cell phone passcode, but its disclosure here under a ruse does not lead to suppression
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ABA Journal Web 100, Best Law Blogs (2017); ABA Journal Blawg 100 (2015-16) (discontinued 2018)
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by John Wesley Hall
Criminal Defense Lawyer and
Search and seizure law consultant
Little Rock, Arkansas
Contact: forhall @ aol.com / The Book
www.johnwesleyhall.com -
© 2003-24,
online since Feb. 24, 2003 Approx. 425,000 visits (non-robot) since 2012 Approx. 45,000 posts since 2003 (26,730+ on WordPress as of 12/31/23) -
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Fourth Amendment cases,
citations, and links -
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Congressional Research Service:
--Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
--Overview of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
--Outline of Federal Statutes Governing Wiretapping and Electronic Eavesdropping (2012)
--Federal Statutes Governing Wiretapping and Electronic Eavesdropping (2012)
--Federal Laws Relating to Cybersecurity: Discussion of Proposed Revisions (2012)
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Section 1983 Blog -
"If it was easy, everybody would be doing it. It isn't, and they don't."
—Me -
"Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well."
–Josh Billings (pseudonym of Henry Wheeler Shaw), Josh Billings on Ice, and Other Things (1868) (erroneously attributed to Robert Louis Stevenson, among others) -
“I am still learning.”
—Domenico Giuntalodi (but misattributed to Michelangelo Buonarroti (common phrase throughout 1500's)). -
"Love work; hate mastery over others; and avoid intimacy with the government."
—Shemaya, in the Thalmud -
"It is a pleasant world we live in, sir, a very pleasant world. There are bad people in it, Mr. Richard, but if there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers."
—Charles Dickens, “The Old Curiosity Shop ... With a Frontispiece. From a Painting by Geo. Cattermole, Etc.” 255 (1848) -
"A system of law that not only makes certain conduct criminal, but also lays down rules for the conduct of the authorities, often becomes complex in its application to individual cases, and will from time to time produce imperfect results, especially if one's attention is confined to the particular case at bar. Some criminals do go free because of the necessity of keeping government and its servants in their place. That is one of the costs of having and enforcing a Bill of Rights. This country is built on the assumption that the cost is worth paying, and that in the long run we are all both freer and safer if the Constitution is strictly enforced."
—Williams v. Nix, 700 F. 2d 1164, 1173 (8th Cir. 1983) (Richard Sheppard Arnold, J.), rev'd Nix v. Williams, 467 US. 431 (1984). -
"The criminal goes free, if he must, but it is the law that sets him free. Nothing can destroy a government more quickly than its failure to observe its own laws, or worse, its disregard of the charter of its own existence."
—Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 659 (1961). -
"Any costs the exclusionary rule are costs imposed directly by the Fourth Amendment."
—Yale Kamisar, 86 Mich.L.Rev. 1, 36 n. 151 (1987). -
"There have been powerful hydraulic pressures throughout our history that bear heavily on the Court to water down constitutional guarantees and give the police the upper hand. That hydraulic pressure has probably never been greater than it is today."
— Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 39 (1968) (Douglas, J., dissenting). -
"The great end, for which men entered into society, was to secure their property."
—Entick v. Carrington, 19 How.St.Tr. 1029, 1066, 95 Eng. Rep. 807 (C.P. 1765) -
"It is a fair summary of history to say that the safeguards of liberty have frequently been forged in controversies involving not very nice people. And so, while we are concerned here with a shabby defrauder, we must deal with his case in the context of what are really the great themes expressed by the Fourth Amendment."
—United States v. Rabinowitz, 339 U.S. 56, 69 (1950) (Frankfurter, J., dissenting) -
"The course of true law pertaining to searches and seizures, as enunciated here, has not–to put it mildly–run smooth."
—Chapman v. United States, 365 U.S. 610, 618 (1961) (Frankfurter, J., concurring). -
"A search is a search, even if it happens to disclose nothing but the bottom of a turntable."
—Arizona v. Hicks, 480 U.S. 321, 325 (1987) -
"For the Fourth Amendment protects people, not places. What a person knowingly exposes to the public, even in his own home or office, is not a subject of Fourth Amendment protection. ... But what he seeks to preserve as private, even in an area accessible to the public, may be constitutionally protected."
—Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 351 (1967) -
“Experience should teach us to be most on guard to protect liberty when the Government’s purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.”
—United States v. Olmstead, 277 U.S. 438, 479 (1925) (Brandeis, J., dissenting) -
“Liberty—the freedom from unwarranted intrusion by government—is as easily lost through insistent nibbles by government officials who seek to do their jobs too well as by those whose purpose it is to oppress; the piranha can be as deadly as the shark.”
—United States v. $124,570, 873 F.2d 1240, 1246 (9th Cir. 1989) -
"You can't always get what you want / But if you try sometimes / You just might find / You get what you need."
—Mick Jagger & Keith Richards -
"In Germany, they first came for the communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Catholic. Then they came for me–and by that time there was nobody left to speak up."
—Martin Niemöller (1945) [he served seven years in a concentration camp] -
“You know, most men would get discouraged by now. Fortunately for you, I am not most men!”
---Pepé Le Pew "The point of the Fourth Amendment, which often is not grasped by zealous officers, is not that it denies law enforcement the support of the usual inferences which reasonable men draw from evidence. Its protection consists in requiring that those inferences be drawn by a neutral and detached magistrate instead of being judged by the officer engaged in the often competitive enterprise of ferreting out crime."
—Johnson v. United States, 333 U.S. 10, 13-14 (1948)
Website design by Wally Waller, Little Rock 
Category Archives: Body cameras
The Atlantic: The Always-On Police Camera
The Atlantic: The Always-On Police Camera by Sidney Fussell: Body cameras that automatically activate in response to the sound of gunfire could forever change people’s expectations about public spaces.
The New Yorker: Can the Manufacturer of Tasers Provide the Answer to Police Abuse?
The New Yorker: Can the Manufacturer of Tasers Provide the Answer to Police Abuse? by Dana Goodyear: Axon’s body cameras are reshaping how video evidence is collected—and who controls it.
Editorial: Police Videos Should Be Public Under OPRA
NJLJ: Editorial: Police Videos Should Be Public Under OPRA: In Paff v. Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, our Supreme Court has held in a 4-3 decision that police video recordings are exempt from disclosure under the Open Public Records Act. We … Continue reading
techdirt: Researcher Says Police Body Cameras Are An Insecure Mess
techdirt: Researcher Says Police Body Cameras Are An Insecure Mess by Tim Cushing: The promise of transparency and accountability police body cameras represent hasn’t materialized. Far too often, camera footage goes missing or is withheld from the public for extended … Continue reading
NYLJ: Judge Orders NYPD Study Requiring Officers to Use Body Cameras Earlier in Encounters
NYLJ: Judge Orders NYPD Study Requiring Officers to Use Body Cameras Earlier in Encounters by Colby Hamilton: U.S. District Judge Torres called for the program after a May report recommended officers begin recording during the lowest level of encounters with … Continue reading
WaPo: The Watch’ Blog: The ongoing problem of conveniently malfunctioning police cameras
WaPo: The Watch’ Blog: The ongoing problem of conveniently malfunctioning police cameras by Radley Balko: When cops aren’t punished for not using or misusing their body and dash cameras, the cameras are worse than useless.
NPRL: Body Camera Maker Weighs Adding Facial Recognition Technology
NPRL: Body Camera Maker Weighs Adding Facial Recognition Technology by Ian Wren: The largest supplier of law enforcement body cameras in the U.S. is exploring pairing its cameras with new AI capabilities — including real-time face recognition.
CA11: There is no adverse inference as a matter of law from failure to maintain audio of stop
Because the exclusionary rule is a “last resort,” on plain error review, defendant cannot claim error for the failure of the district court to determine that his version of the facts is more credible than the governments. There is no … Continue reading
Fortune: Police Body Cameras Could Get Facial Recognition Technology
Fortune: Police Body Cameras Could Get Facial Recognition Technology by Lisa Marie Segarra:
CA9: Police officers have no REP in their own body camera videos
Police officers have no reasonable expectation of privacy in their own body camera videos. Santa Ana Police Officers Association v. City of Santa Ana, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 1980 (9th Cir. Jan. 25, 2018):
WaPo: Baltimore Police officer who turned off body camera charged with tampering with evidence
WaPo: Baltimore Police officer who turned off body camera charged with tampering with evidence by Justin Fenton: A grand jury has indicted a Baltimore Police officer on charges of misconduct and fabricating evidence in connection with a body camera video … Continue reading
Techdirt: Prosecutors Benefiting Most From Police Body Cameras [Well, duh!]
Techdirt: Prosecutors Benefiting Most From Police Body Cameras by Tim Cushing:
NPR: In Practice, Police Accountability Is Not The Main Function Of Body Cameras
NPR: In Practice, Police Accountability Is Not The Main Function Of Body Cameras by Martin Kaste: Police departments across the country have adopted body cameras to counter claims of abuse. But as they become more routine, cameras are turning into … Continue reading
NBC Chicago: Every Chicago Patrol Officer Equipped With a Body Camera
NBC Chicago: Every Chicago Patrol Officer Equipped With a Body Camera: Chicago now has the largest deployment of body cameras in the country, according to CPD, which previously said the total number of cameras throughout the department would reach 7,000.
Rare.us: Horrific new bodycam footage shows what happens when a police K9 gets out of an officer’s control
Rare.us: Horrific new bodycam footage shows what happens when a police K9 gets out of an officer’s control by Patrick McMahon:
Houston Public Media: Report On Body Cameras Asks That Police Officers File Initial Reports Without Reviewing Footage
Houston Public Media: Report On Body Cameras Asks That Police Officers File Initial Reports Without Reviewing Footage by Al Ortiz: It contends the policy used by HPD and other departments can cause inaccuracies
D.Colo.: Officer’s near complete failure to follow inventory policy showed it was an investigative search
The inventory of defendant’s car was clearly an investigative search, and the lack of any paper inventory and the body camera video prove it. Defendant’s cell phone wasn’t logged in, the officer said, because it was taken into the station … Continue reading
Newsweek: LAPD Cop Accused Of Planting Drugs In Man’s Wallet With Body Camera Rolling
Newsweek: LAPD Cop Accused Of Planting Drugs In Man’s Wallet With Body Camera Rolling by Christal Hayes: A Los Angeles police officer allegedly stuffed a baggie of cocaine into a man’s wallet after picking it up off the ground – while … Continue reading
AP: Should police get to view bodycam footage immediately?
AP: Should police get to view bodycam footage immediately?: