Search and Seizure

The Fourth Amendment prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. A search occurs whenever police officers invade a suspect's reasonable expectation of privacy, either by physically intruding into a constitutionally protected location or committing a technological invasion of privacy. A seizure occurs when police officers commit a meaningful interference with a suspect's possessory interest in property. Minor interferences with possession do not trigger Fourth Amendment protection. The Fourth Amendment generally requires a search warrant before police officers may search for or seize a property for use as evidence. A search warrant protects against general searches by interposing, between a citizen and the police, the disinterested determination of a neutral, detached magistrate that there is probable cause for the search and by specifying where the police may search or what they may search for. The warrant's description of the place to be searched limits the scope of the search to locations where the police have demonstrated probable cause to believe that the objects of the search are likely to be found. The description of the things to be seized limits the intensity of the search activity to that necessary to uncover the items listed in the warrant. The Police are allowed to search for evidence without a warrant in four situations: consent, searches incident to a lawful arrest, exigent circumstances, and vehicle searches. The Fourth Amendment also allows warrantless limited weapons searches and inventory searches.