NCJ Number
101723
Journal
North Carolina Law Review Volume: 62 Issue: 2 Dated: (January 1984) Pages: 329-356
Date Published
1984
Length
28 pages
Annotation
This article reviews U.S. Supreme Court decisions in nine cases of the 1982 term which involved defendants' claims that the police had unlawfully seized drugs.
Abstract
In every case, these claims had been sustained by a Federal circuit court of appeals or by the highest State court that heard the case. In seven of the nine cases, the court reversed the lower court decision. In the other two cases, the Supreme Court provided the police with significantly more latitude than the lower court permitted. United States v. Place was the zenith of the Court's effort to balance citizens' protection from both criminals and overzealous police. This decision allows canine drug sniffs of luggage but prohibits the lengthy detention of luggage based only upon reasonable suspicion (a brief seizure of luggage is permissible based on reasonable suspicion). The nadir of the court's protection of citizens from overzealous police was United States v. Villamounte-Marquez, which permits customs officers to board ships at any time in U.S. jurisdiction to examine documents and papers without reasonable suspicion that a crime has been committed. Other Court decisions permit police latitude in stopping and searching cars, shining lights to detect potential incriminating evidence, and electronically monitoring personal property. If the Court is to protect citizens from unreasonable police searches, it must focus on the definition of a 'reasonable' search. Reasonableness should be defined in terms of balancing the likelihood of the searchee's innocence, the harm done if the searchee is innocent, and the gain in crime detection or police protection if the searchee is guilty or armed. 178 footnotes.