=CdwJava;2896421]So ... you might be willing to stay with your car on a traffic stop for, say, two or more hours while the officers have you detained and one of them runs off to seek a warrant due to the odor of alcohol or marijuana?
yes and if the warrant is not issued, it is simply more egregious and give me greater cause for action against the officer for an unjustified detention. That will make the system consider what they are doing as it will increase actions against them. They won't try to BS through a situation anymore.
Should we also do away with searches incident to arrest?
of a vehicle? Unless the vehicle is involved with the crime that caused the arrest, yes. Personally I have a problem with inventory searches as well. What difference does it make what a person has in their vehicle unless it is part of the crime? They tow the car, impound it and do whatever they do from there. What is in the car is not important. An inventory search is simply a justification to be able to search the car without support for a warrant.
Terry? I believe they are overused but all in all, justified. It is not intended to be a search as the Constitution is concerned. I do have a problem when it is used to discover other items other than weapons though.
Where do we draw the lines with exigencies?
I would have to take one step at a time but an exigency is definable. It has been used to allow just about any action by an officer and is rarely successfully rebutted by the then accused.
This would require an overhaul in a number of different 4th Amendment standards.
Yes, yes it would. I don't have a problem with that. The SCOTUS does that every year. That is why we pay them the big bucks.
Judges already have the final say. Even in field searches the officer will have to articulate the probable cause and the exigency for any evidence to be of use. The issue is already subject to judicial review, it simply does not require that we have a platoon of on-call judges on standby.
While I know a lot of cops are honest, the fact remains there are too many that will use loopholes created by an exigency or Terry to discover what they are really looking for and then viola': evidence is allowed because it was discovered based on an erroneous claim. It takes very little to articulate cause for a Terry search (and without video evidence is nearly impossible to rebut). Exigencies require a bit more support but if the cop is willing to fudge the facts, it is easy to cover up.
If it continues on its current path, then expect greater autonomy and likely even more statutory or explicit exigencies.
actually I see it moving in the other direction with many situations. The cops are being held to higher standards with more clarity in their justification. Video cameras are doing wonders for the average citizen and their proliferation will only improve things.
