In previous articles, this blog has discussed the vehicle exception to the requirement that law enforcement officials must obtain a search warrant in order to search a person’s property for evidence of a crime. Simply put, law enforcement officials may search a vehicle without a warrant where they have probable cause to believe that evidence of criminal activity will be found inside the vehicle and where exigent circumstances exist that necessitate searching the vehicle immediately. With respect to automobiles, the requisite circumstances basically exist where the automobile can be driven out of the jurisdiction and thus poses the threat of loss or destruction of evidence. Although this exception has been in place for quite a while, it has not always been clear exactly how intrusive the search was allowed to be with respect to items found inside the vehicle. That is, can law enforcement officials only seize what is in “plain view” in the vehicle, or may they conduct a more extensive search that extends to opening containers, bags, etc. that are found inside the vehicle?
In California v. Acevedo, the United States Supreme Court provided some clarity on this issue. In summary, the Court held that where police officers have probable cause to search a vehicle under the vehicle exception the officers are allowed to search containers such as bags, cans, pouches, and so forth to the same extent that they would be allowed to search them had they actually gone before a magistrate and obtained a search warrant. This holding basically means that if the police have probable cause to search a part of a vehicle, they are also allowed to search inside containers found in that part of the vehicle that may contain evidence of criminal activity. It should be noted, however, that this ruling does not extend outside the subject of containers found inside vehicles. That is, the ruling does not take away the requirement that law enforcement officials have probable cause in order to search all or part of a vehicle. This requirement will be explained in more detail in upcoming blogs.
