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Scope of Automobile Searches: Containers

By Baker Associates

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...continue to full post

Full post as published by Tennessee Criminal Lawyer Blog on March 15, 2010 (boomark / email).