Criminal Law, Procedure, and Constitutional Rights
Criminal Law, Procedure, and Constitutional Rights
This domain tests whether a lieutenant can spot constitutional and procedural issues before they become liability. Expect scenarios on stops, searches, arrests, Miranda, eyewitness identification, use of force, and evidence handling.
Core rules
- Reasonable suspicion vs. probable cause: a Terry stop requires specific, articulable facts; a frisk requires reasonable suspicion the person is armed. Probable cause supports arrest and many warrantless searches.
- Warrant exceptions: consent (voluntary and within scope), exigency, search incident to arrest (area within immediate control), automobile, plain view, and inventory. Each has limits.
- Miranda: custody plus interrogation triggers the warning; routine booking questions generally do not.
- Use of force: evaluate under the Fourth Amendment’s objective reasonableness, considering the totality of circumstances and the suspect’s actions, not hindsight.
- Due process: preserve exculpatory evidence and follow identification procedures that avoid suggestion.
Worked example
An officer stops a car for a broken taillight. The driver is nervous, and the officer sees a folded knife on the console. The officer orders the driver out, pats him down, and finds a handgun. The frisk is valid only if the officer can articulate reasonable suspicion the driver was armed and dangerous; the visible knife plus nervous behavior and reaching motions may support it. The handgun is admissible if the frisk was lawful. The lieutenant should ensure the report states specific facts, not conclusions like “suspicious.”
Traps
Treating a hunch as reasonable suspicion; extending a traffic stop beyond its purpose without justification; searching a car incident to arrest beyond the passenger compartment; and invoking Miranda only when the person says “I want a lawyer.”