Police can search parked cars

Police can search a parked car for drugs, guns or other evidence of a crime while arresting a driver or passengers nearby, the Supreme Court ruled Monday.

The high court has already ruled that officers can search a car when arresting someone inside, and the same rule now applies if a motorist or passenger gets out of the car.

The 7-2 ruling addressed a common situation, in which police pull over a suspicious car or come upon it while it is parked. Sometimes motorists get out of the car before an officer approaches, and it was not clear until now whether police had leeway to search the car.

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My question is how far away from the car is grounds to search it and how far is this new law going to be pushed? Can they search cars in the parking lot of a resturant and wait for the person to come outside?

The ruling would apply only when a suspect was arrested close to a car, and would not apply to an abandoned car with no driver or recent occupant in sight.

As you asked, what is 'close'. It's ambiguous, if anything, they should really set a limit so I'll know how far to run!

[Edited on 25-5-2004 by parrhesia]

I would think the only limitations to this law would be the imaginations of the police. More often than not I've seen the police bend the laws to suit them. Considering how much leeway they have with determining what they consider to be Probable Cause, they could and probably would say any car within eyesight.

When I first started driving, all those years ago, I was pulled over for speeding once with my parent's car. The cop saw a spoon in the back seat and demanded to search the car for drugs. Guess he thought that I was using it to melt some liquid fun or something for injection. Thank god I did not have an atlus in the car!

Originally posted by Jonna
The cop saw a spoon in the back seat and demanded to search the car for drugs. Guess he thought that I was using it to melt some liquid fun or something for injection. Thank god I did not have an atlus in the car!

A spoon as probably cause to search?
Have they never eaten in their car, with a utensil?
That's silly.

You're likely right though, alternate, I'm sure the law will be bent to suit their situations, with nothing definate layed out.

hahahaha

i have an older car and the front seat has some minor cigarette burns from careless idiots and a cop pulled me over and wanted to search the car claiming "those look like burns from pot seeds"...first off why does he know this? second whenever i've done pot i ALWAYS removed the seeds. third i have never done it in a car (always at home and i havent done it in five years now) fourth i dont know if he was right, i've never seen someone smoke pot with seeds in it.

now because i was in a hurry to get to work i let him search the car. another squad car pulls up and the guy gets out and "watches" me while the first cop searches the car. he looks under the seats, in the glove box, in the back seat...then wants to look in my trunk...ok fine if you wanna see the spare tire go right ahead...

finally when he was done with much disgust on his face knowing he didnt find anything in my car he gives me a "warning".

normally i would have told him to get a warrant. after all he asked and i had the right to tell him no. even if i did it was jsut me in the car and i had no witness to prove he did ask me, he could always claim he had cause to search without my permission...

now i'm not a law breaker and i dont do dumb stuff in my car but a cop wanting to search my car just irks the hell out of me to no end. i have nothing to hide but i feel like i'm being treated like a criminal.


i was working for the state dept of transportation at the time and i knew why he pulled me over....on the stretch of highway i was on they had an operation going pulling over random cars looking for drugs...i was still pissed off just the same.