NCJ Number
144166
Journal
Crime to Court: Police Officer's Handbook Dated: (August 1993) complete issue
Date Published
1993
Length
50 pages
Annotation
These articles examine United States Supreme Court decisions concerning searches and holding that the owner of the premises to be searched need not be suspected of a crime for the search to be reasonable.
Abstract
The case of Zarcher v. The Stanford Daily involved a search warrant of a college newspaper office to obtain negatives, film, and pictures of persons involved in a violent incident that took place in 1971. The warrant affidavit contained no allegation or indication that members of the newspaper staff were in any way involved in unlawful acts in the incident. The newspaper sued the police officers and agency. The lower courts supported the newspaper, but the Supreme Court disagreed. It held that, the preconditions for a warrant (probable cause, specificity with respect to the place to be searched and the things to be seized, and overall reasonableness) should provide sufficient protection against the harms possible from warrants for searching newspaper offices. This case and others emphasize that search warrants involve places and things rather than persons and that the critical element of a search is its reasonableness. An additional article discusses emergency lights on police vehicles and the reasons for their use. Photographs