Search and Seizure - Admission/Application Essay Example

For instance, if a person puts a personal diary in a secured drawer in the bedroom, he/she has demonstrated a reasonable expectation and law enforcement officials cannot just decide to go into the bedroom, open the secured drawer and read the diary. Many situations cause debate regarding individuals’ reasonable expectations. For instance, whether individuals should rationally expect a law enforcement official to search their pockets in order to determine if they are in possession of guns, whether individuals should reasonably expect a law enforcement official not to intercept and read their emails, or to peer into the windows of their houses, among others.

The Fourth Amendment forbids law enforcement officials from carrying out ‘unreasonable searches and seizures.’ It is important to note that individuals’ reasonable expectations regarding their privacy are vital components in the determination of judges regarding police investigations’ legal guidelines (Cole, Smith, and DeJong, 2012). Seizure refers to the denial of freedom and liberty of movement, or the pleasure of a law enforcement official of taking control over something or someone.

Law enforcement officers may take hold of private property temporarily for approximately two weeks and usually, if it is pertinent proof in a criminal case, they seize it indefinitely. For people temporary detention or seizure takes place for shorter periods – usually seventy-two hours. If a law enforcement official in the street asks a question to a passing pedestrian and the pedestrian answers and goes on without interference by the official, his/her freedom and liberty of movement has not been interfered with.

Law enforcement officials are therefore free to talk to individuals on the street. If individuals stop voluntarily to talk with the official, they have not been seized since they can move along anytime they wish. A seizure takes place when individuals are not free to depart at will when officials assert their power to stop the movement of an individual. According o the Fourth Amendment, a seizure must be reasonable (Ncwc.edu, 2003). Cole, Smith, and DeJong (2012) add that arrest is one form of seizure and it entails putting a suspect in custody.

In the year 2005, the Supreme Court approved another form of seizure, whereby police officers held a person in handcuffs for three hours as the official searched a home. The court deemed the detention reasonable since the person was present on propert where law enforcement officials searched for drugs and weapons. Property can as well be subject to seizure, particularly if it is proof in a criminal case. A stop is a very brief seizure. It is a short intrusion with the freedom of movement of an individual with a duration that can be measured in minutes.

An example of a stop is when a police offices calls for a driver to pull over with the aim of writing out a traffic citation. The fourth amendment requires that stops be justified by reasonable suspicion, whereby there are specific aspects of the appearance, circumstances, and behavior of the suspect that make the police officer to come to the conclusion that there is need to stop the individual to investigate the incidence of an offense. Stop and Frisk (pat down of one’s external clothes) occurs when a detective has grounds to think that an individual is acting apprehensively and it is possible that he/she is armed. A