Automobile searches

SIGNIFICANCE: Police frequently have occasion to stop vehicles and conduct searches because automobiles are the most common form of conveyance in the United States.

Because of the proliferation of vehicles on U.S. roads and highways, police often encounter situations in which they must conduct searches of automobiles for criminal evidence. Since 1925, the courts have permitted law-enforcement officers to search automobiles without search warrants. This practice is allowed as an “automobile exception” to the warrant requirement of the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In Carroll v. United States (1925), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that because of the “mobility” of motor vehicles, police could conduct searches without search warrants.

The Court established two requirements for conducting warrantless searches of automobiles. First, officers must have probable cause to believe that the vehicles contain evidence or contraband related to crimes. Second, the mobility of automobiles makes it impractical for police to hold them until they can obtain search warrants. Therefore, the Court permits police to search motor vehicles with or without search warrants if they have probable cause.

Other rationales used by the courts to permit automobile searches include the reduced privacy expectation citizens have when traveling in cars, compared with when they are in their homes. Moreover, many of the articles subject to search in vehicles may be in plain view of the police. Warrantless automobile searches can be as extensive as those conducted with warrants, under the conditions established in the Carroll decision.

Scope of Automobile Searches

Automobile searches fall into two categories—searches of vehicle contents and inventory searches of vehicles. The courts have expanded police automobile search authority to include motor vehicles, containers, and passengers. These rules enable the police to search passenger compartments of automobiles if they have legal reason to believe that they may contain evidence or illegal goods. Searches can be expanded to include entire vehicles and all accessible unlocked containers when probable cause is present. In fact, if police officers have probable cause to believe that a specific container in an automobile contains a weapon or evidence of crime, they are allowed to search it even when they lack probable cause to search the entire vehicle. Beyond the vehicle contents, the police may search the personal effects of the occupants if they believe weapons or evidence are present.

Police are allowed to search passenger compartments and surrounding areas within the reach of occupants of the vehicles whom they arrest. Although they are permitted to conduct searches for weapons or evidence, such searches must be conducted at the same times as the arrests of the occupants. If police officers lawfully stop or approach a vehicle, they may peer inside it and seize any article they readily identify as illegal, so long as it is in their visual “plain view.”

Automobile searches can also be conducted when the drivers or owners voluntarily give consent, verbally or in writing. Ordinarily, consent searches allow the police look in areas of the vehicle, including containers, that are accessible and unlocked.

Other circumstances may permit limited searches of passenger compartments of vehicles and passengers within their immediate reach. To ensure the safety of the officers, the police may order occupants to exit vehicles so they can conduct limited outer clothing touch-searches of them and areas within their reach when reasonable suspicion exists that the occupants may be armed with weapons. If the officers have probable cause to believe that occupants may be hiding weapons or evidence, they may also search the occupants’ personal effects.

Limited warrantless searches of vehicles may also be performed when vehicles have been involved in accidents or have been subjected to vandalism. Abandoned vehicles seized in public places that are believed to contain contraband can also be searched in a similar manner.

Automobile Inventory Searches

The second category of permissible automobile search is vehicle inventory searches. This type of search is designed to protect vehicle owners’ personal effects at the time the police impound their vehicles. Vehicles may be impounded for several reasons. For example, police may have towed automobiles involved in the commission of criminal offenses that may contain evidence, They may also have vehicles that impede traffic or that are abandoned towed. However, the courts have also stated that police officers should take care to reduce the chances of theft of personal articles within the towed vehicles. They should also take care to reduce reasons for suspecting that the police themselves have removed items from cars. Vehicle inventory searches were devised to enable the police to document articles found in passenger compartments and trunks of automobiles.

Another situation in which vehicle inventories are permissible arises when police arrest drivers for offenses and impound their vehicles. In South Dakota v. Opperman (1976), the Supreme Court established the automobile inventory search doctrine by ruling that police may inventory personal effects found in impounded automobiles, so long as the items are accessible without the use of force—such as might be required to open a locked storage box. The courts have also stated that valid inventory searches must follow established departmental procedures using standardized practices. The scope of inventory searches is restricted to documenting accessible items found in cars and cannot be used as a pretext to conduct extensive searches of vehicles.

Although the U.S. Supreme Court has established many guidelines for automobile searches, state court rulings and individual department policies may affect the manner in which the police conduct vehicle searches. Indeed, local rules and policies in some jurisdictions may be even more restrictive than the practices allowed by the federal courts.

Bibliography

Del Carmen, Rolando V. Criminal Procedure: Law and Practice. 9th ed. Belmont: Wadsworth, 2014. Print.

Holtz, Larry. Contemporary Criminal Procedure. 11th ed. Charlottesville: LexisNexis, 2011. Print.

LaFave, W. R. Search and Seizure: A Treatise on the Fourth Amendment. 5th ed. St Paul: West, 2012. Print.

McCurley, John. "Unlawful Vehicle Searches and Seizures." Lawyer.com, 21 June 2022, legal-info.lawyers.com/criminal/traffic-violations/unlawful-vehicle-searches-and-seizures.html. Accessed 20 June 2024.

McWhirter, Darien A. Search, Seizure, and Privacy. Phoenix: Oryx, 1994. Print.

Moritz, Natalie, "Vehicle Searches." FindLaw, 11 Oct. 2023, www.findlaw.com/traffic/traffic-stops/vehicle-searches.html. Accessed 20 June 2024.