Criminal Defense Attorney
If you are driving and pulled over by the police, can they search your car without a warrant? The answer is yes, most likely they can. Here’s why:
Generally, in the United States people have the right to privacy and to be free from unreasonable searches without a warrant. The Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution prohibits the government from conducting searches on people or their things unless they first obtain a warrant. The warrant must be based on articulable probable cause and get approved by a judge or magistrate before it can be issued. Articulable probable cause means that the warrant must clearly describe exactly who or what is to be searched and identify the particular reasons why police believe there is evidence of a crime.
The Constitution, however, was written in 1787, well before cars were invented. As cars became more and more part of our everyday lives, law enforcement realized that people were using them to transport illegal items and commit crimes. During the prohibition era, specifically, police were interested in searching cars where they suspected people were smuggling alcohol. In response, the Supreme Court adopted what is commonly known as the “automobile exception” to the warrant requirement.
The Supreme Court held in Carroll v. United States (1925) 267 U.S. 132, that police can search cars without a warrant where they have (1) probable cause to believe evidence of a crime is inside and (2) there are exigent circumstances to believe the car would be removed from the area if they took time to go get a warrant from a judge or magistrate. This ruling became known as the Carroll Doctrine.
The Supreme Court distinguished cars from houses or people, finding that it is not practical to require police to secure a warrant before searching a car because cars—being mobile by definition—can be easily moved to a new location or jurisdiction. The Supreme Court reasoned that one has a lower expectation of privacy in their car. This is because the ease of moving a car creates an “inherent exigency” to allow warrantless searches and preserve the loss of evidence. For this reason, the automobile exception does not violate one’s Fourth Amendment right to privacy.
The Supreme Court further held in United States v. Ludwig (1993) 10 F.3d 1523, that police are not required to get a warrant even if the officer has time to obtain one. So long has they have probable cause to believe there is evidence of a crime within, and the car is capable of getting away, police can search your car without a warrant.
Under the automobile exception, police may search your entire car when they have probable cause to believe there is evidence of a crime within. This includes searching the trunk, glove compartment, containers within the vehicle, and the bodies of any passengers inside. The scope of their search, however, is not unlimited. Police may only search the areas where they have reason to believe there is evidence of the specific crime which gave rise to the probable cause to search in the first place. For example, if police have probable cause to search for a rifle, they may not use the automobile exception to search one’s purse, pockets, or small containers within the car. This is because those areas cannot physically contain a long gun.
Our friends at the Law Offices of David R. Silldorf, APC will tell you that if you are facing criminal charges and police searched your car without a warrant, you may have a legal defense if the search was unreasonable or beyond the scope for which there was probable cause to search. This is why it is important to contact an experienced criminal defense attorney to help identify possible defenses to the automobile exception to learn more about your rights in this type of a situation.
