Defendant lacked standing in the place searched because he lived elsewhere, and he was there helping run drugs through the house. United States v. Espindola-Pineda, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24489 (E.D.N.C. Feb. 3, 2016), adopted 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24488 (E.D.N.C. Feb. 29, 2016).
The traffic stop ripened to reasonable suspicion. “Thereafter, Trooper Stephenson developed additional reasonable suspicion of criminal activity sufficient to extend the stop beyond the point of asking general questions. First, neither the driver nor the passenger had a proper driver’s license. Second, during the course of Trooper Stephenson’s initial questioning, the occupants seemed unusually nervous. Third, the vehicle was registered to a third party, Guerrero. Fourth, during the initial questioning of the occupants in the vehicle, neither occupant could give Trooper Stephenson a destination. Fifth, Trooper Stephenson noticed unusual modification to the exhaust of the vehicle.” United States v. Guerrero, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25970 (W.D.La. Feb. 16, 2016).*
Posted inReasonable suspicion, Standing|Comments Off on E.D.N.C.: Being a mere drug handler in a drug house doesn’t give standing
A team of plainclothes New York City police officers, tracking the signal of a stolen cellphone, pushed past a man who denied the officers permission to enter his home and searched it floor by floor. A sergeant forced the man to wait outside in his underwear in the rain.
“I can do anything I want,” one officer told the man. Continue reading →
Posted inPolice misconduct|Comments Off on NYTimes: Review Agency Faults New York Police Department on Unlawful Searches
PRINCETON — A recent high court ruling threatened to put the brakes on the popular law enforcement “Santa Stops,” however local troopers have found a way to continue the holiday tradition while staying within the boundaries of the law.
In a recent memo to law enforcement agencies, Mercer County Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ash pointed out that these stops are a violation of the Fourth Amendment, even though officers are simply committing “random acts of kindness.”
Police officers who don’t appreciate the nervousness that a police stop creates …
Posted inSeizure|Comments Off on Bluefield (WV) Daily Telegraph: High court ruling threatens to end ‘Santa Stops’
EFF joined NYU Law School’s Brennan Center for Justice, ACLU, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the Libertarian National Committee, and former Congressman Bob Barr in urging the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals to revisit a recent opinion finding no reasonable expectation of privacy in 10 weeks of continuous, surreptitious video surveillance. The opinion sets a dangerous precedent that law enforcement officers in Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, and Tennessee don’t need a warrant to film your every move in front of your house.
The case, United States v. Houston, is posted here.
Posted inPole cameras|Comments Off on EFF Urges Sixth Circuit to Revisit Case Finding No Warrant Needed for Ten Weeks of Covert 24/7 Video Surveillance
Members on both sides of the aisle on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee believes that the Department of Justice is required to obtain a search warrant to access geolocation data, and not doing so directly violates Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights.
Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland confirmed Monday that the city is using cell phone eavesdropping technology with court approval, but said he couldn’t discuss specifics.
Strickland said while campaigning last year that he would be transparent about the city’s use of the “cell-site simulator” device known as StingRay, which lets law enforcement gather information from any phones that connect to a cellular network.
Posted inCell site simulators|Comments Off on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Strickland says he can’t discuss city’s use of cell phone eavesdropping device
The Maryland Senate on Tuesday delayed action on a bill that would clamp down on when public buses and trains can record the private conversations of their passengers.
Posted inSurveillance technology|Comments Off on WaPo: Devices on public buses in Maryland are listening to private conversations
…[W]hat research has been done on the overall effect of police body cameras? Do they change an officer’s behavior? Do people on camera behave better? Do court cases become easier to resolve? How does a department save all that data, and for how long? Answer: We don’t really know. Any of that.
Posted inBody cameras|Comments Off on WaPo: What do we know about police body cameras? Survey says: Not much
WASHINGTON — The head of the F.B.I. acknowledged on Tuesday that his agency lost a chance to capture data from the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino attackers when it ordered that his password to the online storage service iCloud be reset shortly after the rampage.
“There was a mistake made in the 24 hours after the attack,” James B. Comey Jr., the director of the F.B.I., told lawmakers at a hearing on the government’s attempt to force Apple to help “unlock” the iPhone.
Posted inSurveillance technology|Comments Off on NYTimes: F.B.I. Error Locked San Bernardino Attacker’s iPhone
The Justice Department has argued that Apple has a legal responsibility to help the government unlock iPhones that may contain evidence needed in criminal investigations. A federal judge in Brooklyn argues, persuasively, that the company is not obligated to do so.
The trial court determined that defendant consented to go with the officers to the station to talk about a murder, and that finding is supported by the record. Although not detained, he was Mirandized, and his statement was voluntary. He was also found to have consented to the taking of his boots, fingernail scrapings, fingerprints, and buccal swabs. State v. Coleman, 2016 La. LEXIS 370 (La. Feb. 26, 2016).*
“Based on the corroborated emergency call, the presence of Defendant in a high-crime area, the nature of the suspected offense, Defendant’s peculiar behavior, and the presence of a visible and suspicious bulge on Defendant’s outer clothing, Officer Gudes reasonably suspected that Defendant was involved in the commission of a burglary.” Thus, a patdown was permissible. United States v. English, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24444 (M.D.Fla. Feb. 5, 2016),* adopted United States v. English, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24440 (M.D. Fla. Feb. 29, 2016).*
Plaintiff’s seizure by dog bite claim was a legal conclusion without factual support, so the district court did not err in granting summary judgment. Sebastian v. Douglas County, 2016 CO 13, 2016 Colo. LEXIS 192 (Feb. 29, 2016).*
Posted inConsent, Reasonable suspicion, Seizure|Comments Off on LA: Def consented to coming to stationhouse and statement and searches there
The officer’s smelling marijuana outside defendant’s residence was probable cause to corroborate the story that defendant had a grow going on. A particularity challenge was waived by not presenting it to the trial court at the suppression hearing. State v. Navarro, 2016-Ohio-749, 2016 Ohio App. LEXIS 669 (3d Dist. Feb. 29, 2016).
The officer had reason to believe that defendant’s license had been suspended for six years, so he had reasonable suspicion that defendant’s license was suspended when defendant was seen on the street. The following inventory of his vehicle was proper. United States v. Sandford, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25140 (W.D.N.Y. Feb. 29, 2016).*
Officers had reasonable suspicion defendant’s Mercedes was involved in a robbery when it was parked outside a store for a long time and, after the robbery, it fled. United States v. Howard, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24536 (E.D.Wis. Feb. 26, 2016).*
Police following defendant may have been intimidating, but it wasn’t a seizure. He abandoned the drugs on him. State v. Ramey, 2016-Ohio-607, 2016 Ohio App. LEXIS 689 (2d Dist. Feb. 19, 2016).*
A convenience store clerk who called the police about a suspected DUI was a citizen informant. Defendant’s stop was with reasonable suspicion. State v. Schnell, 2016-Ohio-752, 2016 Ohio App. LEXIS 662 (12th Dist. Feb. 29, 2016).*
Finding the defendant not guilty of speeding was not a finding that there was no basis for the stop. The officer testified he smelled marijuana coming from the car, and that was enough for a search of the car. State v. Mansour, 2016-Ohio-755, 2016 Ohio App. LEXIS 664 (12th Dist. Feb. 29, 2016).*
The drop in price, along with the improvements made to camera technology have made drones both popular and controversial, especially when it comes to privacy concerns.
Posted inDrones|Comments Off on WWMT: As drones soar in Michigan, so do privacy concerns
A group studying how police should use body cameras has released its recommendations to Colorado legislators, including guidance on when the devices should be turned on and off, and how to handle privacy.
Posted inBody cameras|Comments Off on Colorado Public Radio: Police Body Camera Recommendations Head To Lawmakers
But in a year when Loveless, R-Oklahoma City, is up for re-election to the state legislature—a time when most lawmakers would choose not to stir the pot—the state senator has decided to challenge Oklahoma’s civil asset forfeiture laws, which some consider a ‘cash cow’ for police and prosecutors because of their ability to seize cash and property without charging the owner with a crime.
Posted inForfeiture|Comments Off on Daily Signal: Inside the Push to Make It Harder for Government to ‘Steal’ Property, Cash in America’s Heartland
Privacy advocates are already concerned about legislation to establish a national commission to explore how police can get at encrypted data without endangering Americans’ privacy.
Posted inSurveillance technology|Comments Off on The Hill: Privacy groups wary of compromise encryption bill
The Institute for Justice, a libertarian advocacy law firm, is suing the state of Indiana over its civil asset forfeiture practices. Under state law, the proceeds from forfeiture are supposed to go to a schools fund. But that isn’t happening.
Posted inForfeiture|Comments Off on WaPo: ‘The Watch’ Blog: Lawsuit takes aim at asset forfeiture in Indiana
Defendant stayed with his aunt. He spent the night with a woman in his bedroom. It wasn’t reasonable to conclude that the woman he spent the night with had common authority over the room to consent. United States v. Jackson, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 23566 (N.D.Ga. Feb. 26, 2016).
Defendant was stopped with reasonable suspicion of credit card fraud, and his windows were overtinted. The passenger did not respond to get out of the car, so the officer opened the door because he couldn’t see her. The smell of marijuana came out, and marijuana was in plain view. Opening the door was reasonable under the circumstances. State v. Matthews, 2016 La. App. LEXIS 372 (La.App. 1 Cir. Feb. 26, 2016).*
Defense counsel was not ineffective for not filing a motion to suppress the search of his car with a warrant for evidence of a murder. There was probable cause, and it would be futile. State v. Durham, 2016-Ohio-691, 2016 Ohio App. LEXIS 614 (8th Dist. Feb. 25, 2016).*
Posted inApparent authority, Ineffective assistance|Comments Off on N.D.Ga.: Woman def spent last night with didn’t have apparent authority to consent to search room
"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, Let it Bleed (album, 1969)
"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]
“Children grow up thinking the adult world is ordered, rational, fit for purpose. It’s crap. Becoming a man is realising that it’s all rotten. Realising how to celebrate that rottenness, that’s freedom.” – John le Carré, The Night Manager (1993), line by Richard Roper
"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)
The book was dedicated in the first (1982) and sixth (2025) editions to Justin William Hall (1975-2025). He was three when this project started in 1978.
