Steven J. Richardson | July 8, 2010
Police officers frisking a suspect as part of an arrest is something with which we are all familiar. There is even a famous picture of former New Jersey Governor Christie Whitman frisking someone. This is for the purpose of determining whether the suspect is armed, before taking him or her into custody, and it is [...]
Steven J. Richardson | May 24, 2010
On May 21, 2010, the New Jersey Appellate Division ruled that police cannot enter and search a private residence with only a “reasonable suspicion” of criminal activity (the standard under Terry v. Ohio, a 1968 U.S. Supreme Court case). In the case of State v. Jefferson, police officers were investigating drug dealing and possible gun-play, [...]
Steven J. Richardson | April 14, 2010
In a previous post I had talked about a court’s refusal to suppress evidence obtained from a search incident to arrest, where the arrest warrant was stale. In that case, the police were executing a warrant issued by another county but, due to a glitch, the database was not properly updated, and the police arrested [...]
Steven J. Richardson | November 24, 2009
We have all seen it on the TV police dramas. The police say to the suspect: “If you didn’t do anything, why did you run?” Well, despite the world of prime time crime drama, running is not enough for the police to stop you and search you. Yesterday, the New Jersey Appellate Division ruled in [...]
Steven J. Richardson | July 20, 2009
Many of us have noted on the sides of police patrol vehicles the words, “To Protect and To Serve,” but we do not always fully understand or appreciate their meaning. This month, however, the New Jersey Courts have focused on this in two decisions having to do with the Fourth Amendment right to protection against [...]