Special Needs Rule - Essay Example

Special Needs Rule The “Special needs rule” has never been defined well by a court of a law (Gardner & Anderson, 2009). However, what is clear in thelaw, especially the fourth amendment is that all searches done by a government agent has to be reasonable. While the courts have the obligation to interpret the term reasonable as applicable to searches, the bottom line is that searches have to be done by the right people. Courts have held in the past that even where police ought to be involved; for example, the case of a gun search, authorities directly involved should be at the fore front.

In the case of a student who requires to be searched, the authority directly involved is the school officials, and therefore should be directly involved in the search. A clear example is the case, New Jersey v.TLO, and in this case, the Supreme Court ruled that searches that do not have probable causes can only be legal if they are done by the school authority. School setting is always a special setting, and the allowed officials are the school authorities. However, the presence of the police is welcome, but has to be regulated.

As posited in the case, New Jersey v. TLO, the setting of a school may require modification especially in terms of suspicion or suspecting. The police cannot just move in to make unwarranted searches, rather, the school officials should be the one to be used. After the suspicion is confirmed, then, the law would take its course, and this time it would be implemented by the police. According to Gardner & Anderson (2009), the move to control searchers due to individualized reasons is to avoid seizures without deeply based suspicion.

There is always a high need to differentiate an emergent issue in terms of searches and searches within special situations. Emergent searches are only when in the confines of police administration or not in a confine of a special situation. Special searches have to be procedural. Reference Gardner, T.J. & Anderson, T.M (2009). Criminal Evidence: Principles and cases. Belmont: CengageBrain Learning.