When can the police search my car?

All Americans have basic constitutional rights that we may exercise when required. Such rights are meant to protect and maintain our freedom. One such right provided by the US Constitution is the right to be free from unreasonable searches of your property and person. Property in this case can also refer to a person’s car.

Ideally, when a law enforcement officer searches your car, he or she should have either a search warrant issued by a judge or the due permission of the owner/operator of the car, say criminal defense lawyers otherwise they would be conducting an illegal search.

Initially when the Fourth Amendment of the constitution which gives us the right against unreasonable searches and seizures was drafted, it only accounted for a person’s private property such as his/her house, etc. but not a car. However, the US Supreme Court had to then stretch the boundaries of the Fourth Amendment to include a person’s vehicle within the definition of personal property.

Without a Warrant

It must be noted that the law does not offer full protection against searches and seizures with respect to a person’s car as it does in the case of property or person. Basically, there are still certain situations where a law enforcement officer can lawfully search a car or motor vehicle without a search warrant or the owner’s due permission and criminal defense attorneys know this is the case.

Types of Vehicle Searches

The Supreme Court, in 2009, threw some light on what sort of car searches were legal and which ones weren’t by passing additional legislation which clarified it.

These are the three broad classifications of searches as per the US Supreme Court.

1. Search incident to arrest – When law enforcement officers have reason to place a suspect under arrest then they incidentally also have the rights to search the suspect and his or her immediate vicinity. If they happened to have been in the car, then the law enforcement officers may very well go ahead and search the car too.
2. An inventory search – An inventory search occurs when the driver is arrested and then the car is impounded. Law mandates that the officers maintain a record of what was in the car at the time when it was impounded and therefore it entails that they have to search it. This is usually the case in a DUI arrest.
3. Probable cause search – When law enforcement officers have reasonable suspicion to believe that the car holds within it illegal firearms, contraband, or other illegal items, the officers can also search the suspect by using a pat down search technique, say criminal defense lawyers. If you have seen the show The Wire you saw this. They suspected the driver was doing something criminal since he was seen dealing with known drug dealers and when the police pulled him over he was found with $25,000 in cash in his car in a brown lunch bag. The money was separated and folded like other cash that was confiscated from an Avon Barksdale crew member days prior. Very suspicious indeed!

How a legal counselor can assist you?

If you happen to be a victim of an unconstitutional, unlawful search and are facing criminal charges, then you can build a fool proof defense strategy revolving around the fact that you were subjected to an unlawful search and actually beat your case. In order to be able to do this, we strongly recommend that you reach out to a criminal defense lawyer as soon as possible.