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MD: Search incident of locked compartment lawful

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Search incident includes a locked glove compartment, even though everybody is out of the vehicle at the time, following the weight of authority. Hamel v. State, 2008 Md. App. LEXIS 36 (March 6, 2008). The fact that the police had probable cause 24 hours before the actual search of defendant's car did not mean there were no exigent circumstances. There was no way of predicting that there actually would be drugs in defendant's car at the time it was seen. Commonwealth v. Eggleston, 2008 Mass. App. LEXIS 245 (March 7, 2008): As a practical matter, the inherent mobility of an automobile creates a level of fluidity or unpredictability that militates against assessing through too fine a lens the opportunity of police to obtain a warrant for the vehicle prior to a search...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on March 11, 2008 (boomark / email).