Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, and Constitutional Law
This section covers criminal law, criminal procedure, and constitutional law as they constrain police decisions. The exam tests whether a captain can spot a lawful stop, search, seizure, statement, or charging decision and can supervise others who must apply it.
Core rules and concepts
- Fourth Amendment: searches and seizures must be reasonable. A warrant needs probable cause, but recognized exceptions include consent, exigency, plain view, search incident to arrest, automobile, inventory, and brief Terry stops.
- Terry: reasonable suspicion of criminal activity permits a stop; a frisk requires reasonable suspicion the person is armed and dangerous.
- Fifth Amendment: Miranda applies to custodial interrogation. Custody is judged by whether a reasonable person would feel free to leave; interrogation includes words or actions likely to elicit an incriminating response. The public-safety exception is narrow.
- Sixth Amendment: the right to counsel attaches after formal charging and applies at critical stages.
- Criminal law: actus reus plus mens rea; complicity and attempt require the required mental state and conduct.
Worked example
An officer arrests a driver for a minor traffic offense, handcuffs him, and places him in a patrol car. A supervisor then searches the passenger compartment and finds drugs. Under Arizona v. Gant, a vehicle search incident to arrest is not automatic: it is allowed when the arrestee is unsecured and within reaching distance, or when reason exists to believe evidence of the offense of arrest is in the vehicle. Here neither applies, so the search is likely unlawful.
Traps that cost marks
Treating a vehicle search incident to arrest as automatic; stretching the public-safety exception; ignoring consent scope; and confusing a Terry frisk with a full search.