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The Fourth Amendment: Search and Seizure

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The Fourth Amendment: Search and Seizure
Search and Seizure

Tatiana Santos
The Criminal Justice System
CCJ 3024

Abstract

The purpose of this assignment is to look in further to the rules and regulations, or rather; laws that police officials must abide by when executing their duties. These rules and regulations include search and arrest warrant in addition to protocol that the Courts oversee for public search and arrest. There are certain requirements that must be met by an officer in order to obtain a warrant. Such must be done in a manner in which is appropriate and consistent with the law as opposed to the opposite which happens so often when officers decide to go beyond their jurisdiction. In this paper, controversial topics dealing with constitutional rights of U.S. citizens will be presented and how they are governed.

As previously stated, police officials have laws that they must follow. Such laws are in place in order to avoid corruption and abuse of power. There is a constant weight of upholding the law while simultaneously preserving the right of every U.S. citizen. Since police officials have laws to abide by, they also have to be consistent with the constitutional rights of every citizen. As an influential unit, law enforcement plays a crucial role in obtaining the tools possible to make their duties as thorough as they can be. Aside from police officials carrying out this balance, our government and lawmakers are obligated to oversee the leverage between police power and constitutional rights. Such is done in a manner that will not weaken police force or impede on the constitutional rights of U.S. citizens. Police officials are given a manual. This manual dictates the rules and guidelines necessary in order to catch criminals. If for some reason these rules and regulations are not followed as a protocol, a U.S. citizen’s privacy or right has been stricken. If a police official senses that there is a law being violated, they want to be able to centralize the



References: California v. Greenwood, 486 U.S. 35 (1988) Oliver v. United States, 466 U.S Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (1968) Chimel v. California, 395 U.S McWhirter, D. (1994). Search, seizure, and privacy. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press. Hubbart, P. (2005). Making sense of search and seizure law : a Fourth Amendment handbook.

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