When does the law state your rights have to be read?
Full Question:
Answer:
There are actually two conditions that must be met before the officer is required to read you your Miranda rights. The first is that are placed under arrest. The second is that the officer continues to interrogate you. You have the right to refrain from answering questions or making statements.
Miranda rights or warnings are meant to inform you that you don’t have to answer any questions the officer asks you. The legal reasoning behind these two conditions is that, if you’re not being asked any questions, then there’s no need for you to know your Miranda rights.
Unfortunately even if Miranda warnings are warranted, an officer's failure to give Miranda warnings may not mean the entire case will be dismissed. Miranda warnings are supposed to protect the accused from making incriminating statements that are the product of custodial interrogations. Where the Miranda warnings (including the right to remain silent, advising that anything said can and will be used against the person in court, the right to an attorney, and advising that if someone can't afford an attorney, one will be appointed) are not given, statements made while in custody may be suppressed, but the case won't be thrown out.
Generally, if lack of probable cause can be proven, a citation may be thrown out.
If he has a "reasonable suspicion" that something is wrong, the officer may stop and "freeze" the situation to investigate. Or he may stop the car because he is concerned about the driver's health or welfare. In either case there must be something illegal going on or something that the officer sees or notices "in plain sight" before he can arrest the driver or search the car.
With almost all laws in the United States, there are exceptions to the warrant requirement for government officials before they can arrest or search a person or their property:
Plain View Doctrine: The Plain View Doctrine says that if an officer is lawfully present at a place, that officer may begin a search if they have probable cause that they are looking for contraband. The objects that they search and seize must be in plain view of the officer.
Open Fields Doctrine: The Open Fields Doctrine says that open fields, waters, woods, and other such areas may be searched and have objects seized without the presence of a warrant
Exigent Circumstances: Exigent Circumstances are when the officer is allowed to perform a search and seizure without a warrant because they feel that it is necessary to the safety of themselves, other officers, the public, and their property.
Motor Vehicle Exception: The Motor Vehicle Exception is when an officer can search a vehicle if they have probable cause without a warrant but cannot search the people inside the car without probable cause or unless those people gave their consent.
It is recommended to be represented by an attorney when facing criminal charges due to the serious nature of the consequences and effect on your rights that may be involved. Automobiles may be stopped if an officer has a reasonable and articulable suspicion that the motorist has violated a traffic law. One exception to the Fourth Amendments warrant requirement is that, incident to a lawful arrest, police may search an arrestee and the area immediately surrounding him. Such a search must be contemporaneous with the arrest, conducted to prevent the seizure of a weapon or the destruction of evidence, and limited to an area within the arrestees control. Police may conduct warrantless searches of vehicles and any containers within which are likely to contain what they are looking for whenever police have probable cause to believe that contraband or evidence will be found in the vehicle.
Once the vehicle has pulled to the side of the road, the Fourth Amendment permits the officer to search the vehicle's interior, including the glove compartment. However, the trunk of a vehicle cannot be searched unless the officer has probable cause to believe that it contains contraband or the instrumentalities of criminal activity. Like a search incident to arrest, once a vehicle has been lawfully impounded, its contents may be inventoried without a warrant, including the contents of the trunk.
Traffic stops based on reasonable suspicion are investigatory stops under Terry v. Ohio. Stops based on reasonable suspicion may be likely to be challenged by a defendant than stops based on probable cause.
Some of the most common ways allowed for officers to search/frisk a vehicle without a search warrant include:
• Abandoned Vehicles.
• Plain View.
• Consent.
• Inspection.
• Search During Temporary Questioning.
• Incident to Arrest.
• Probable Cause.
• Inventory Searches.
For an officer to search a vehicle with the consent of the person in control of the vehicle, the consent must be voluntarily, freely, and knowingly given. To prove voluntary consent, the consent must be unequivocal and specific, and freely and knowingly given. Consent must be given without duress or coercion, express or implied.
A traffic officer, or person authorized to enforce non-moving traffic violations may use reasonable means to gain access to a vehicle if that vehicles identification number can not be read, such as where the identification number has been removed, altered, or obliterated or made impossible to read.
A vehicle may be searched during temporary questioning, when certain articulable facts are present. In order to justify a protective sweep of a vehicle, an officer must have a reasonable fear that he/she is in danger. For example, in one case, when officers approached a vehicle during an investigation of possible drug dealing, and the driver's hand was hidden from view, the officer was found justified in conducting a protective search of the passenger compartment, since the suspect may have dropped a weapon in the car that would present a danger to the officers
Some of the factors that may be considered in justifying a protective sweep of a vehicle, among others, include:
-Reason for the stop.
-Furtive movement by the driver and whether the officer sought any explanations of such movements.
-Officer to subject ratios
-Whether the officer intended tolet the driver return to the vehicle after the encounter was over or the officer intended to eventually arrest the driver.
-Number of persons in the stopped vehicle.
-The time of day or night and the lighting conditions.
-The position of the squad car and the other vehicle and were the officers in a particularly vulnerable position in relation to the person or persons in the car.
-Odd or unusual behavior by the driver.
-Whether the driver or passenger(s) attempted to flee.
-Unusual indications of nervousness by occupants of the vehicle
-Indications of alcohol or drugs.
-Whether the area is a high crime area.
