The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution protects citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures. Police officers can’t simply walk up to any citizen and detain or arrest that person. There must be reasonable suspicion or probable cause that the person has, is, or is committing a crime in order to…
That is kind of a convoluted title to the blog post, but essentially the police in this case tried to use the observation of a concealed handgun in the defendant’s vehicle as a legal basis to search the vehicle, find the concealed firearm and then charge the defendant with carrying…
In Florida, police officers are generally able to stop vehicles when those drivers commit traffic violations. This does not necessarily require a moving violation such as speeding or running a red light. It could also involve some problem with the vehicle itself. Once the police officer stops the driver for…
In Florida, when police search something, such as a vehicle, and find drugs or other evidence of illegal activity, the defendant can normally file a motion to suppress the evidence based on an illegal search under the Fourth Amendment. However, not every defendant has a right to challenge every search…
In Florida, when the police search a person or any location and find drugs or other evidence of illegal activity, the defendant can challenge the search as illegal under the Fourth Amendment which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. However, not every defendant can challenge every search. There is a concept…
One reason police are often against the full legalization of marijuana is that marijuana illegality gives police officer perhaps the easiest excuse to search people and vehicles. Likewise, marijuana arrests are about as easy as it gets for police officers. They smell marijuana, they search and they arrest. No real…
We wrote a blog post several months ago about a case where a police officer in Florida stopped a driver because some of the unnecessary letters on the license plate were obscured. In other words, the letters and numbers that make up the unique information on a license plate that…
In Florida, many criminal arrests begin as traffic stops. Most DUI’s begin this way along with other, more serious charges. As a result, a criminal defense lawyer should always look at the initial stop and how it occurred to see if there might be a search and seizure issue that…
In Florida, the criminal laws are created by the state legislature. They are laws that prohibit certain conduct, and a violation of those laws can result in an arrest and jail time. Police are allowed to search a person after an arrest for a state crime. If the police find…
In Florida and elsewhere, people have a constitutional right to privacy, and this protection is greatest in one’s home. As a result, the police generally cannot search a person’s residence without consent from someone with authorization or a valid search warrant. If the police do get a valid search warrant…