The War on Drugs may be the most counter-productive, fiscally wasteful policy in the history of humankind. Yet, it forges ahead, as it does little to effect any change other than to redirect taxpayer money away from beneficial programs and increase the size of government. With regard to marijuana, it…
Pursuant to both the United States and the Florida Constitutions, people have a right to privacy in their homes. This means that the police normally cannot come into a person’s home and search for drugs or other evidence of criminal activity without a valid search warrant or consent from someone…
In Florida, where marijuana remains illegal for now, the odor of marijuana is a fairly common basis that police use to further investigate or search a suspect. It is also a basis that is often used to conduct a DUI investigation and make DUI arrests. The odor of marijuana obviously…
In Florida, many criminal cases involving drugs and guns result from traffic stops. A police officer will conduct a traffic stop and become suspicious or allegedly discover evidence of illegal activity and search the vehicle. A search of the vehicle can be based on consent, which the driver or occupant…
The prior post discussed the difference between a consensual encounter with the police in Florida and something more involved. The police in Florida are free to engage people in consensual encounters to ask questions or make observations, and people are free to refuse to answer questions or otherwise cooperate. Once…
The Fourth Amendment and the Florida constitution provide that people have a right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures conducted by the state. There are thousands of court cases that interpret what exactly this means in the context of the different police encounters. As a general rule, the…
Most people have heard of the “black box” or “event data recorder” after airplane crashes. It is a device that records information about the plane that helps investigators determine how and why a crash occurred. What many people may not know is that cars often have black box recorders as…
In alleged DUI cases that involve serious accidents, the police are often not able to perform their usual DUI investigations which include field sobriety tests and a breathalyzer test, if the suspect consents to them. If the suspect is in no condition to perform those tests due to injuries from…
In most cases, if the police want to search your residence for drugs, guns or other evidence of criminal activity, they need consent from the owner or someone with authorization or a search warrant. However, there are some exceptions. One such exception is the hot pursuit doctrine. The hot pursuit…
In Florida, the general rule is that the police cannot search a person’s property without a search warrant or specific consent from the owner of that property. There are exceptions, of course, but a police search without a search warrant or consent is generally going to be illegal. When the…