On January 23, 2012, the Supreme Court of the United States decided Ryburn et al. v. Huff, et al. [i] which reiterated several rules that relate to the Constitutional reasonableness of an officer’s warrantless entry into a private residence.  The facts of Ryburn are as follows: [Officers] Ryburn and Zepeda, along with two other officers from the Burbank Police Department, responded to a call from Bellarmine-Jefferson High School in Burbank, California. When the officers arrived at the school, the principal informed them that a student, Vincent Huff, was rumored to have written a letter threatening to "shoot up" the school. The principal reported that [...]

On January 23, 2012 the United States Supreme Court unanimously held that law enforcement’s act of attaching a GPS device to a vehicle and tracking the vehicle by use of the device constitutes a search under the Fourth Amendment. [i]    It is noted that the prosecution had failed in the lower courts to argue that placement of the device on a vehicle was a reasonable search thus that argument was waived.  The Court outlined the facts in Jones as follows: In 2004 respondent Antoine Jones, owner and operator of a nightclub in the District of Columbia, came under suspicion of trafficking [...]

©2012 Jack Ryan, Attorney, PATC Legal & Liability Risk Management Institute (www.llrmi.com) In Perry v. New Hampshire [i] the United States Supreme Court reviewed an eyewitness identification that led to an arrest in Nashua, New Hampshire.  The arrest of Barrion Perry was the result of a radio call at 3:00 a.m. on August 15, 2008.  Officers responded to an apartment building after receiving a report that a black make subject was trying to break into vehicles.  Officer Nicole Clay was the first to arrive on the scene.  Upon her arrival Officer Clay heard something metal clang to the ground and observed Berrion Perry [...]

Scott v. Harris seemed to settle the liability question with respect to the United States Constitution.  Scott held that an officer’s attempt to stop a motorist who posed a threat to the public by his or her high speed flight did not violate the Fourth Amendment, even if the officer’s attempt placed the motorist in danger of serious bodily harm or death.  At the time Scott was decided we acknowledged that the basic elements of this Fourth Amendment included posing a threat to the public and high speed flight.  While this seemed to end Federal Liability for high speed pursuits where officers used force to [...]

The “Occupy Movement” is really a precursor to the near future for many of our police agencies.  There are many other forms of protest we should expect to encounter: political demonstrations, union protests, sports celebratory events, immigration rallies and other protests of governmental actions. We shouldn’t forget the lessons learned in the 1960s during the civil rights movement and Vietnam protests.  We shouldn’t simply rely on our new equipment and force tools. There are five continuing issues that rise up from our recent encounters with crowd control: officer/agency attitude, unlawful assembly response, arrest provisions, use of force, and mass arrest [...]

The collective knowledge doctrine basically stands for the proposition that if one law enforcement officer has reasonable suspicion or probable cause that would justify the stop of a suspect, then any officer can make the stop on behalf of the that original officer; further, the officer with the knowledge does not have to convey the reasons for the stop to the officer making the stop.   On January of 2011, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, in United States v. Wilkinson [i], upheld the application of the collective knowledge doctrine to misdemeanor cases, in addition to felony cases.  The facts of Wilkinson [...]