Description

Advanced Vehicle Searches is a 2-hour online course covering the legal standards and practical search techniques patrol officers need for vehicle searches that hold up in court. Vehicle searches are a daily occurrence on patrol. They are also one of the most litigated areas of Fourth Amendment law. This course covers both.

What You Will Cover

Legal Basis for Vehicle Searches

Fourth Amendment requirements, probable cause standards, and the case law framework that governs what you can search, when you can search it, and what you need to articulate to make it stick.

Search Incident to Arrest

Scope, timing, and limitations of searches conducted incident to a lawful arrest. What the courts have narrowed and what authority remains.

Inventory Search

Proper inventory search procedure, written policy requirements, and the specific ways inventory searches go sideways at the suppression hearing.

Community Caretaking and DUI Checkpoints

When community caretaking applies to vehicle searches, how to document it, and the legal framework for DUI checkpoint stops and associated searches.

Detention and Identification of Occupants

Passenger rights during a vehicle stop, unrelated questioning, extending the stop beyond its original purpose, and constructive possession as it applies to contraband found in a vehicle.

Identifying Hiding Spots

Common and overlooked locations in vehicles where contraband is concealed, how to approach a systematic search, and the practical technique of searching areas that get missed on a routine pat-down of the interior.

Technology and Evidence

Legal and practical considerations for technology use in vehicle searches, evidence handling, documentation, and chain of custody from the scene to the property room.

Certificate of completion upon finishing. 2 hours. Idaho POST-certified. Online, self-paced.