Consent to Search Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4500 words

Consent to Search - Research Paper Example While there are a number of reasons why a police officer might prefer to obtain consent as opposed to warrant, it is less clear why an individual would voluntarily consent to the inconvenience of a police search. This paper analyses the consent to search issue and considers why policy resort to consent searches as an investigative tool, why individuals might voluntarily consent to a search and how consent searches benefit the public. Consent Searches as a Police Investigative Tool According to Stack police largely rely on consent searches at the airport in their efforts to interdict illicit drug trafficking (183). Police suspicions are usually aroused as to who might be a likely drug trafficker based on the latter’s â€Å"conformity† to police â€Å"drug courier profiles† of persons involved in the illicit drug trade (Stack, 183). This suspicion would not usually be sufficient to obtain a search warrant on the grounds of probable cause or reasonable suspicion tha t the individual is about to or has committed a criminal offence. Even if, the officer had probable cause, it would be counterproductive for the police to apply for and go through the process of obtaining a search warrant as the individual will likely leave the airport or take a flight outside of the jurisdiction in the meantime (Stack, 183-184). According to Nadler and Trout, police investigative practices in the US typically involve â€Å"on-the-fly searches† as a means of detecting â€Å"evidence of crime† (328). In other words, these types of searches are impromptu and not incidental to an existing criminal investigation. Police are: †¦acting on their instincts and training regarding a person’s appearance or behavior or even presence in a particular place (Nadler and Trout, 328). For the most part, consent searches are obtained during routinely made traffic stops. In a typical case, the police will often stop a driver for a minor traffic infraction such as a flawed tail-light, changing lanes without a signal or for exceeding the speed limit. When police officers stop a motorist for a minor traffic infraction it is not usually because of the perceived danger of these infractions, but for the â€Å"opportunity† the stop provides for â€Å"investigating suspicious citizens† (Nadler and Trout, 329). Even where police stop an individual in a routine traffic stop on a hunch that the individual is likely in possession of illegal drugs, the stop is not unlawful if there is evidence of an actual traffic violation (Whren v US, 806). According to Nadler and Trout, the federal government awards significant funding to local police departments as a means of advancing the nation’s war on drugs (329). Therefore, local police departments have a significant incentive for interdicting drugs and this accounts for the large reliance on motorists consent to be searched and have their vehicles searched in routine traffic stops (Nadl er and Trout, 329). Consent searches are necessitated where there is no probable cause or where there are no reasonable grounds to suspect that a crime is being committed or was committed (Nadler and Trout, 230). In addition to passengers at the airport and drivers in traffic