Search Result: Point of Law

By now, most banks and convenience stores have installed video cameras or still cameras to preserve evidence of any criminal event. Following a robbery or other crime, law enforcement officers can use the surveillance video or photos to trace the crook and put together a photo array or lineup to be displayed to witnesses for identification.

Some law enforcement activities are more likely than others to generate citizen complaints, tort claims, and lawsuits (use of deadly or serious force, for example). But even routine detentions, searches, and arrests also present civil liability risks. What can you do to reduce the chances of becoming a defendant in a lawsuit?

In some cases, it’s necessary to take a suspect into custody as soon as you conclude that probable cause exists. But in other cases, making the arrest too quickly might not be advisable. Making an arrest triggers certain constitutional tests and starts the clock running on steps that have to be taken within specified times. Control and safety permitting, it may be best to delay making an arrest until the last practical moment.

The court has now ruled that the timing and other circumstances of an interrogation may undermine the effectiveness of the warning; if the warning is not "effective," the statement is still not admissible, even if the suspect waived and confessed.

What if local laws forbid you to carry a concealed weapon?

During a temporary detention, does a person have a duty to identify himself or herself to the detaining officer? Can a person be arrested for refusing to do so? The answer to both questions is, "Sometimes."

More than a handful of judges, lawyers, and police officers mistakenly thought of Miranda as some sort of judicial rule about how police officers are required to conduct interrogations.

The admissibility rule of Miranda v. Arizona generally dictates that you give the standard warning and get a voluntary waiver before interrogating a suspect in custody. But not always.

A new Supreme Court ruling expands officers’ vehicle search capabilities.

After all you've gone through to make the collar and get the case prosecuted, the last thing you need is to cause a mistrial because of some miscue around the courthouse when your arrestee is on trial.

Hearsay rules confound police, lawyers, and judges alike. "Hearsay" is a statement made outside the courtroom that might be true or false, repeated in court to prove that it was true.

Miranda, Miranda, Miranda. Sometimes, we spend so much time on this one aspect of interrogation law that we tend to forget there are three other constitutional tests of admissibility of a suspect's statement.

The U.S. Supreme Court recently considered whether it was permissible under the Fourth Amendment for law enforcement officers to locate witnesses to a fatal hit-and-run accident by setting up a checkpoint to stop vehicles.

Is it always necessary to comply with knock notice before forcing entry to serve a search warrant?

Documentation and self-control are the keys to protecting yourself against charges of unreasonable force on persons in custody.

A pretrial identification procedure is considered too unreliable if it is "so impermissibly suggestive as to give rise to a very substantial likelihood of misidentification."

Obviously, no reasonable officer is going to risk his or her personal safety or the public safety in order to satisfy rules regulating the admissibility of evidence in a criminal trial, or even to avoid personal civil liability.

Sometimes the man or woman in charge shoulders the blame, even when not personally involved in an incident.

Not everything that causes evidence to be excluded will expose you to civil liability, and not everything that can get you sued will result in suppression of evidence.

If police take someone from one location and transport him or her involuntarily to a police facility for investigation, this will be considered a de facto arrest. Without probable cause, that arrest will be unlawful, with predictable consequences for both evidence suppression and civil liability.