![]() If a police officer believes someone is armed and dangerous, the officer may pat down that person’s outer clothes to search for weapons based on reasonable suspicion. For example, if someone reportedly stole a large TV, police could not search a suspect’s car’s glove compartment but could probably search the trunk. If police have probable cause to believe that a vehicle contains illegal items or evidence of a crime, they may search anywhere in the car that item might be found. However, this does not mean that police can rummage through dresser drawers in the upstairs bedroom, if a person was arrested in the downstairs living room. The police may also sweep the home or building to look for that person’s accomplices. If police arrest someone in a home or building, they may search around the arm span of the person arrested. Police may also take the car and then search it. If police arrest someone in a car, they may also search the passenger area, the area near the driver, and the other people in the car. If police arrest someone, they may search that person and their belongings. There are several exceptions to this general rule where police may search someone or seize-take-their property without obtaining a warrant from a judge in advance. But if the officer wants to search the individual or their belongings, the officer needs facts to support his or her belief that the person committed a crime. In other words, for an officer to be able to stop someone, the officer must at least have reason to think the person did something illegal. ![]() However, based on the fewer facts needed to stop and question someone, police can, through questioning, gain enough information to give them authority to search or arrest that person. This requires fewer facts than probable cause. ![]() But law enforcement may stop and question someone based on something less than probable cause-reasonable suspicion. ![]() To have probable cause, police must have facts to support their belief and not just have a hunch. A judge will not sign off on a search warrant without probable cause-specific signals that the person committed a crime, or that an area contains materials connected to a crime. ![]() Generally, law enforcement may not search a person or property without a search warrant-advance, written permission from a judge. ![]()
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