Tag: Point of Law: Page 16

Patrol

Official Misinformation

What the exclusionary rule has actually meant in practice is that thousands (maybe millions) of criminals have been able to stop the prosecution from using critical evidence of their guilt to hold them accountable for their crimes.

February 28, 2009

Weapons

To Keep and Bear Arms

Before traveling to another state where you intend to carry off duty, do a little research and inquire about local laws regulating firearms possession on private property.

January 31, 2009

Patrol

Non-Custodial Stationhouse Interrogations

Because warnings are only required prior to custodial interrogation, one way to minimize the adverse impact of Miranda on investigations is to try to conduct interrogations whenever possible in non-custodial settings.

December 31, 2008

Patrol

The Young and the Arrestless

Notwithstanding the explosion of youth criminality, the court has largely continued to treat juvenile offenders in a more lenient and paternalistic fashion than adults.

November 30, 2008

Patrol

Keeping up with Case Law

Much of what I learned in basic academy in the late 1960s is no longer good law. If I were still operating on the basis of 40-year-old understandings, I wouldn't be very effective.

October 31, 2008

Patrol

Entrapment

"The first duties of the officers of the law are to prevent, not to punish crime. It is not their duty to incite to and create crime for the sole purpose of prosecuting and punishing it." — U.S. Supreme Court, Sorrells v. U.S.

September 30, 2008

Patrol

No Explanation Required

In your search warrant affidavits, your reports, and your testimony you have to lay out the basis of your suspicions and justify every detention, arrest, search, seizure, entry, and use of force.

August 31, 2008

Patrol

Pinpointing the Right to Counsel

Ever since the 1964 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Massiah v. U.S., it has been the rule that any statements about a crime that were deliberately elicited from the suspect by a government official or undercover agent, after the Sixth Amendment right to counsel had “attached” and been asserted, could not be used at trial to prove guilt.

July 31, 2008

Patrol

Civil Liability and Protected Speech

You must act with considerable discipline and restraint when loudmouths try to demean and upset you with offensive language and gestures.

June 30, 2008

Patrol

Fourth Amendment Supremacy

Evidence discovered during a search incident to an arrest supported by PC is not suppressible in the majority of state courts.

May 31, 2008

Training

Reflex Fire

It's not uncommon to hear or read about officer-involved shootings where multiple officers emptied their loads into the suspect and anything within 10 feet of him. Asked about why they opened fire, bystander officers may reply, "When another officer started shooting, I just reflexively started shooting, too."

April 30, 2008

Patrol

The Crime-Charging Gap

Just because a prosecutor declines to file or a grand jury declines to indict does not necessarily mean there has been a bad arrest. Proving guilt in a criminal trial requires the prosecutor to meet a much higher burden than the arresting officers, by proving the charges beyond a reasonable doubt.

March 31, 2008