Legal Update

Surviving a pandemic has caused a shift in how we get the things our families need, meaning more people buy things online and get them delivered versus going out to shop for them. Today’s case out of the Fourth Circuit highlights suspicious packages and the reasonable expectation of privacy when it comes to handling shipments. When it comes to shipments, the reasonable expectation of

United States v. Brown brings us to the Ninth Circuit. It also highlights two court cases, Terry v. Ohio and Sibron v. New York. The first case, Terry v. Ohio, is a Supreme Court case that held a police officer correctly limited his protective search to, “what was minimally necessary to learn whether the men were armed and to disarm them once he discovered weapons.” The officer had reasonable suspicion that three men were

In the past we have reviewed cases with pole cameras and their use in modern day policing. Today’s case, United States v. Tuggle, examines how the length of time that one uses a device to perform surveillance to investigate someone can make the case a little trickier. The Supreme Court has argued this point before, specifically in United States v. Jones stating that “short-term

United States v. Thompson deals with a protective sweep surrounding a potential threat to officers. Because of some suspicious activity officers believed that an ambush could take place if they did not fully search where the suspect was staying. While performing the sweep officers uncovered evidence that would help their case. In Maryland v. Buie, the Supreme Court held that police officers may conduct

Walker v. Donahoe deals with a sensitive topic, suspicious activity surrounding a past school shooting. Of course, when we have a tragedy hit our community it puts us on even higher alert to make sure it never happens again. Some of the surrounding circumstances around today’s incident include the area where the suspect was walking and the date, February 14, 2018, which was very close

United States v. Sanders, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 21065 (8th Cir. IA July 16, 2021) United States v. Sanders touches on an example of exigent circumstances. As a refresher, exigent circumstances exist in general terms when “there is a compelling need for official action and no time to secure a warrant.”i Typically, exigent circumstances exist if, absent immediate official action, “the accused would be able