search warrants??

[militarybella]

What is the name of your state?ID, I am currently a criminal justice major as well as a military wife. I am doing a paper concerning drug search warrants in base housing. My question is--if a military dependent is suspected of possessing drugs or paraphenalia (without the knowledge of the military member) and resides in base housing, must a search warrant be executed to search the premises?? And if so, who must execute the search, civil authorities or base authorities if the person is a dependent and does not fall under the UCMJ????

[fozzy2]

"Base housing" is not a very precise term. There are actually a number of different legal categories for housing located within the boundaries of a base, and the the laws of search and seizure aren't clear for all of them.

To start with, there is the "traditional" base housing in which the U.S. military owns and operates housing located on federal land. Typically you don't pay rent, your 'landlord' is Uncle Sam, etc. Such property is normally considered within "military control" and thus the C.O. can authorize searches.

However, the US military has rapidly been switching to various forms of "privatized" housing. Here the law is not so clear. For example, the U.S. government leases land to a private developer. They serve as your 'landlord' and you pay them rent, etc. The housing may still fall within the geographic bounds of a "base" (i.e. within the fence), but is it under "military control" for the purposes of search and seizure? As far as I know there is no definite decision, but most sources seem to indicate that the courts will eventually require a valid warrant. There is one important caveat, however. There may be some clause buried in the fine print of your rental agreement that gives the government greater power.

Generally, the key question is whether or not a location is under "military control" and what the "expectation of privacy" of a person is at that location. The Fall 2004 Military Law Review has a lengthy article on the subject, if you are looking for a source.

[123rich]

The 8 months I have spent working with CID we have done many searches for drugs, stolen property, and searching a home for evidence for a death scene. For all of those searches a search warrant is required. The only reason a search warrant would not be required is if the owner of the home gives consent to search. Being a consent to search is always warranted there is usually no need to obtain a search warrant. If the subject refused to give consent to search the home then an MP will post himself on the property and no one will enter the home, to include the occupants, until the search warrant is obtaned from SJA.

As far as uncle sam being the landlord. As a US citizen you still fall under the Constitution and state laws. Now being a civillian on a military base you do not fall under the ucmj but for every military article there is a civillian article as well and it will be transfered to the civillian authority for charges.