CA7: “The Fourth Amendment does not require best practices in criminal investigations.” Just PC

“The Fourth Amendment does not require best practices in criminal investigations.” That a controlled buy could have been done better doesn’t mean there wasn’t probable cause. United States v. Glenn, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 22544 (7th Cir. July 20, 2020):

The principal reason to search an informant before a controlled buy is to make sure that he does not try to trick the investigators by providing the drugs himself and then asserting that he bought them from the target. It is possible that some sleight of hand might be practiced even when a transaction is recorded, but the audio and visual record of this transaction would have allowed a conviction beyond a reasonable doubt. Probable cause is a lower standard. The Fourth Amendment does not require best practices in criminal investigations. That the agents could have managed this controlled buy to provide an even higher level of confidence does not imply that probable cause is missing.

Given the audio and video evidence of the controlled buy, the informant’s reliability and motivations are not material to the existence of probable cause. Gates observed that these considerations can be important to the total mix of information, which is why police do well to provide details to the judge asked to issue a warrant, but the omissions do not detract from the powerful audio and video evidence.

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