Essay on "Home Invasion Police and the Rights of Citizens"

Essay 12 pages (3956 words) Sources: 12

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Home Invasion and the Law of Search and Seizure

The Fourth Amendment is a critical piece within the Constitution that serves to protect individuals from unlawful searches and seizures. But what happens if a search/seizure falls within the gray zone -- namely, when police believe they have probable cause to make an arrest or perform a search but have no court issued warrant to do so? Moreover, what happens if the police force their way into a suspect's home without? In the case of the Reynolds brothers and their father Cyrus, these questions are extremely pertinent because they strike at the root of the matter of whether police acted justly and lawfully in their apprehension of their two suspects. This paper will provide an analysis of the law of search and seizure as it applies to the fact pattern within the Home Invasion case study of the Reynolds. The analysis will include relevant Constitutional freedoms, moral purposes, legal perspectives and merits or lack thereof of the ultimate results.

Constitutional Freedoms

The Fourth Amendment states that citizens have "the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized" (U.S. Const. amend. IV). What this essentially means is that persons can expect to be secure in themselves and their property from undue searches and seizures. The Founding Fathers viewed this as an important right that they wrote it into the Constitution. However, in modern times, a number of events have transpired that have ultimately loosened the bounds on the Fourth Amendment and what it actually guarantees. For instance, in the wake of 9/11, law enforcement agencies have taken to affording themselves more protection when it comes to using electronic surveillance, and searching and seizing property. One good example of this is the TSA at the airport, which obliges travelers to undergo a search before boarding planes. While some argue that this is a violation of the Constitution, courts have ruled that TSA security measures (including body scans) are indeed Constitutional because the scans are "not unreasonable given the security concerns on airplanes, and that people have the option to opt out" for a pat down instead (Hill, 2011).

How this applies to the case of Steve, Peter and Cyrus Reynolds is another matter. Many people are aware that police are required to obtain a warrant to arrest and/or search, according to the dictates of the Fourth Amendment. Yet, what many are not aware of is the fact that there are exceptions to this rule -- and one of them is the concept of "probable cause" (Woody, 2015). Indeed, in the case, "Detective Walters is convinced that he has probable cause to arrest both of the Reynolds brothers for the Jackson crime" and therefore need not apply for a warrant. There can be good reason for not applying for a warrant in some cases. For instance, if the case depends upon quickness of action and there is reasonable fear that the suspect may dispense with stolen goods or drugs that should otherwise be apprehended by law enforcement, the law enforcement officer is not obligated to seek a warrant before making an arrest or conducting a search: the is known as the exception of exigency -- and requires that law enforcement officers provide evidence that the situation was indeed an emergency and required fast action (Legal, 2015). In the case of Detective Waters and the Reynolds clan, it could be argued that exigency did exist -- as the brothers were armed and the stolen loot was particularly valuable and could be quickly sold, thus making it impossible to restore the goods to the lawful owner or to secure evidence of criminality against the suspects.

One issue where the case could present difficulty is the action taken by police regarding the arrest of suspects and search/seizure within the home of Cyrus Reynolds. From the details given in the case study, it appears that there was no "knock and announce" performed by police. The Fourth Amendment requires police officers to announce themselves before entering a home; this typically means that they must knock and wait for a reasonable period of time before forcing an entry -- usually some seconds, at least (Schwartzbach, 2015). Numerous cases in the past have supported this concept, such as Wilson v. Arkansas (514 U.S. 927, 931-932, 1995), Miller v. United States (357 U.S. 301, 1958) and Sabbath v. United States (391 U.S. 585, 1968). These cases all stemmed from the Espionage Act of 1917, a World War I bill designed to place limitations on the power of law enforcement authorities.

However, the case of Hudson v. Michigan did conclude that police are not obliged to give notice if it is deemed that doing so may result in violence or in the destruction of evidence (547 U.S. 586, 2008) -- and in the Reynolds case it could be argued that Detective Walters acted prudently in not announcing his entrance, allowing instead the police team to spring a surprise on the Reynolds clan and catch both Steve and Peter with the stolen loot in their rooms. It should be expected, on the other hand, that a defense attorney would argue that the police violated the Fourth Amendment rights of Cyrus Reynolds by neither knocking nor obtaining a warrant to search his establishment.

Moral Purposes

As Harris (2010) notes, all U.S. citizens have a right to privacy as guaranteed by the Constitution. The moral purpose of this protection is to ensure that citizens are not abused by a tyrannical authority. If the Constitution is to be taken literally and judged according to the letter of the law, one could argue that its moral purpose has been circumvented in an age of electronic monitoring, hyper-surveillance, and laxity regarding warrantless searches/seizures. The Electronic Privacy Control Act of 1986 for instance was a bill meant to address certain issues regarding law enforcement's ability to conduct wiretaps, record conversations and access stored data on computer servers. Essentially, the bill opened the door for law enforcement to collect evidence in these manners by broadening the spectrum/reasons for which these methods could be employed without requiring law enforcement to gather a warrant. In other words, even in the 1980s the moral law underscoring the Fourth Amendment was being circumvented or neutralized in the wake of technological achievement and the desire of law enforcement to be able to search digital data for incriminating evidence. All of this raises the question about how far citizens are actually protected by their Constitutional rights in today's day and age. Is the moral imperative implied by the Fourth Amendment still in existence? Some would certainly argue that it is, pointing to the fact that police cannot invade one's privacy without meeting the conditions -- such as exigency or probable cause or if they are given consent to do so by the owner.

The issue of consent, however, is another one that could be viewed skeptically. For instance, police may not receive consent immediately upon asking -- but that does not mean they stop asking. In some cases, they will keep asking in an attempt to wear down the individual until the individual agrees to do what the police want. For some, this would seem like harassment; for others, it is simply a matter of law enforcement agents doing their job. If their job tells them they should search an individual's house and the law allows them to do so without obtaining a warrant so long as the owner gives them consent to do so, then they are not legally bound to stop asking upon first inquiry. The case of Rojas and Fernandez shows how this applies even when the owner of the home to be searched refuses consent -- but his girlfriend gives it after being pressured by police to do so -- even while her boyfriend adamantly refused to give it; the Supreme Court upheld the search's legality (David, 2015).

Today, the issue of privacy is raised by another technological advancement, which the utilization of body cameras by police. These are cameras that are worn on the front of the police uniform and that are typically operated remotely, meaning that police officers themselves cannot turn them on or off; they are activated when the officer goes on duty and de-activated when the officer's shift ends. Questions of morality and ethics arise, however, whenever an officer enters an individual's home. To what extent should the camera be used? It captures on digital record images of persons who may not want their image recorded and stored for potential future purposes later. How the Fourth Amendment applies in this type of situation has been addressed by groups like the ACLU, who have recommended an ethical guideline for police when using these… READ MORE

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