Search and Seizure Flashcards

The knock-and-announce rule generally requires officers executing a search warrant to:

Answer: Announce their presence and purpose and wait a reasonable time before forcible entry

The knock-and-announce rule requires officers to knock, announce their identity and purpose, and wait a reasonable time before making a forcible entry when executing a warrant.

In Riley v. California (2014), the Supreme Court held that officers must generally obtain a warrant before:

Answer: Searching the digital contents of a cell phone seized incident to arrest

In Riley v. California, the Court ruled that the digital contents of a cell phone contain so much private information that a warrant is required to search it, even when seized incident to a lawful arrest.

An officer discovers a briefcase while conducting a lawful inventory search of an impounded vehicle. The officer may search the briefcase:

Answer: If the inventory policy extends to containers within the vehicle

Under Colorado v. Bertine, inventory searches of impounded vehicles may extend to closed containers if conducted pursuant to standardized, established police procedures.

Under the inevitable discovery doctrine, illegally obtained evidence may be admissible if the prosecution can prove:

Answer: The evidence would have been discovered lawfully through an independent investigation already underway

The inevitable discovery doctrine, established in Nix v. Williams, allows admission of illegally obtained evidence if the prosecution proves it would have been lawfully discovered through independent means already in progress.

A police officer conducts a lawful traffic stop and a drug-detection dog alerts to the vehicle. The officer then searches the car and finds narcotics. This search is:

Answer: Constitutional because the dog alert provided probable cause for the automobile search

A drug-detection dog alert during a lawful traffic stop provides probable cause to search a vehicle under the automobile exception, making the subsequent search constitutional.

Which of the following scenarios would most likely constitute an unreasonable search under the Fourth Amendment?

Answer: An officer using a thermal imaging device aimed at a private home from a public street to detect heat patterns inside

In Kyllo v. United States, the Supreme Court held that using thermal imaging technology to gather information about the interior of a home constitutes a Fourth Amendment search requiring a warrant.

When may an officer conduct a warrantless protective sweep of a home during an arrest?

Answer: As a cursory visual inspection of spaces where a person may be hiding, when there is reasonable belief that an accomplice may be present

Under Maryland v. Buie, a protective sweep is a limited cursory inspection of spaces adjacent to an arrest where a person could be hiding, justified by reasonable belief that a dangerous accomplice may be present.