When can police search your car?

Can Police Pull Me Over?

The Fourth Amendment of the constitution protects us from illegal search and seizure. In the context of a vehicle search the police must first have a reason to pull you over. The police must have probable cause or reasonable suspicion to pull you over. If the police pull you over without probable cause or reasonable suspicion then any evidence gained as a result of the illegal stop must be dismissed. For example, if the police pull you over because you gave them a funny look and they arrest you for drinking and driving then any evidence, including chemical testing of alcohol in your blood, that was obtained after the stop must be suppressed. The end result would be case dismissed.

Can Police Search My Car?

When police pull you over they can ask you to provide license, registration, and insurance. When you are stopped for traffic violation police are also allowed to ask you to get out of the car but the detention can only be long enough to issue the ticket and determine that the driver is entitled to operate their vehicle.

Police must have probable cause to search your vehicle. Probable cause to search a vehicle is considered the automobile exception to the Fourth Amendment warrant requirement. In order to have probable cause to search a vehicle police must be able to demonstrate that there is a fair probability that contraband or evidence of a crime will be found in a particular place. This is considered a common since standard.

Plain site is probably the next most common basis for a search. If on approach to the vehicle the police see drugs then they can search the vehicle take possession of the drugs and use them as evidence against you.

Michigan has what is called the marijuana exception. The marijuana exception allows the police to establish probable cause and search the vehicle based on the smell of marijuana alone.

If a person gives the officer consent to search the vehicle then the police can search it. Consent can be revoked and can be limited to scope. Consent must be freely given to be legal. A driver may be able to consent to the search of the vehicle but not to the belongings of other passengers.

Police may search a car incident to arrest as long as the driver of the vehicle could gain access to the vehicle. This means that the person has to be within reach of the vehicle and could obtain evidence of the offense.

Even if police do not get into the car by one of the methods above they may get to search the car based on an inventory search. The purpose of an inventory search is to protect police from people claiming they had things in their car that they did not and to protect police from danger. In order for an inventory search to be legal the prosecution must prove that police had a standardized policy that is routinely conducted. If prosecution cannot demonstrate these policies are in place and used often then the evidence discovered by police is considered an illegal search under the Fourth Amendment.

Plymouth Criminal Lawyer Aaron J. Boria

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