Police Encounters with Suspects and Evidence

CASE STUDY:

Police Encounters with Suspects and Evidence

Jessica Lewis

Criminal Procedure

CJ227

Professor Contino

May 25, 2013

The following essay interprets and analyzes the case study of Officer Smith and the occupant of the gold Pontiac. Officer’s must make split second decisions when dealing with the public and not having the luxury of knowing who they are dealing with on a daily bases. This essay covers such chain of events that could occur at any routine traffic stop, who, what, when, where and what action was taken in these specific chain of events.

Officer Smith had reasonable suspicion to make the initial stop of the vehicle, based on what she observed to be a broken taillight covered with color tape. Upon stopping, she noticed that the vehicle matched the description of a vehicle that had suspected involvement in a recent crime involving the roadside killing of a fellow officer. “The officer must have reasonable suspicion that a criminal activity is occurring, is about to occur, or has recently occurred and that the vehicle or a person in the vehicle is connected with the criminal activity” (Roberson, Wallace, Stuckey, 2006).

The pat down of the driver was legal because Officer Smith had reasonable suspicion due to the suspicion of the vehicle possibly being involved in the roadside killing of the fellow officer. A pat search is a less invasive technique utilized in order to maintain the officer’s safety; she felt it was necessary to ask the driver to step out of her vehicle for a routine pat down in the event that the driver had a weapon that could cause harm to the officer’s well being. It is a simple safety measure that could afford an officer time to react in the event that things take a turn for the worse.

When the driver sped off at a high rate of speed, Officer Smith had exigent circumstances or an emergency situation, to give chase to the vehicle. Exigent circumstances were present when the woman of the vehicle was trying...