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Officer safety is important, but not carte blanche

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

State failed to show that officer safety did not justify defendant's patdown. The state's saying it does not make it so. Malone v. State, 2008 Ind. App. LEXIS 542 (March 20, 2008): In this case, since a warrant was not obtained to seize the weapon from Malone, it is necessary to determine if seizure of the gun was justified by some exception. The State contends that Officer Rand removed the weapon to protect the safety of the officers. Officer safety is of paramount importance. Police officers are daily placed in difficult and dangerous situations, some of which are life threatening. The law has to provide protections for such officers. At the same time, in a free society there must be a reasonable basis for a warrantless search of our persons and homes; hence, our constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on March 24, 2008 (boomark / email).