Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Fourth Amendment

Criminal Law

: Fourth Amendment

KS: Recording VINs during administrative search was reasonable; stolen cars found

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

A fire code inspector had an administrative warrant to inspect airplane hangers and found three vehicles parked inside. The inspector felt that something was awry, so he wrote down two of the VIN numbers which were visible from outside. As to the third, the VIN was obstructed, so the license plate number was written down. Later, it was determined that two of the vehicles were stolen. Defendant had an expectation of privacy in the hanger as the renter. Recording the VIN during an otherwise lawful search was not an unreasonable seizure under Hicks and Class. State v. McCammon, 2011 Kan. App. LEXIS 29 (March 4, 2011): First, we must determine whether the officer's observation of the VINs through the windshields of two vehicles was a search implicating the Fourth Amendment...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on March 09, 2011 (boomark / email).