Today’s Topic:  Can the police search my vehicle if they pull me over?

If you have been pulled over for a minor traffic violation, ordinarily the police may not search your vehicle for other contraband even if you are arrested for the ticket. The important question to ask when determining if the officer may search a vehicle is whether the original citation encounter has ended.  If the citation encounter has ended the police typically have no right to search your vehicle.  Once the citation has been issued the police officer must have probable cause to search your vehicle.

Probable Cause

Probable cause is usually defined as a reasonable suspicion that a crime has been committed.  That means that given the facts and circumstances available to the police officer at the time, a reasonable person would be satisfied that a crime had been committed.

If the police officer has probable cause to believe that a crime other than the traffic citation has occurred, then that police officer may generally search the vehicle.  However, police officers may not search vehicles simply because the occupants were arrested or cited for a traffic violation.  The search must bear some relationship to the citation given.

It is also important to note that the police may search a vehicle if they are given permission.  As such, it is important for individuals who are pulled over to understand that they may politely refuse an officer’s request to search a vehicle and do not have to give the officer a reason for that refusal.

In the ruling, the Court did not completely prohibit warrantless searches of vehicles.  It did, however, give law enforcement a clearer test to determine whether a particular search will be proper.  After the ruling  an officer may search a vehicle without a warrant “when an arrestee is within reaching distance of the vehicle or it is reasonable to believe the vehicle contains evidence of the offense of arrest.”  The test the Court established now prevents the police from searching a vehicle after the defendant has been safely taken into custody and there is no risk of danger to the officer, but does allow a search for evidence of the particular crime the defendant is being arrested for.  As such, the days of a routine traffic stop leading to a full-scale search of a vehicle when no other criminal activity is found may now be over.