DUI CAR SEARCHES — ARE THEY LEGAL?
The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution generally requires police to first obtain a search warrant before searching property. For many years, police officers were allowed to conduct warrantless searches during or immediately after a lawful arrest. This exception has been known as a search, incident to arrest. In other words, the search follows an arrest. However, the U.S. Supreme Court in a recent case, Arizona v. Gant, ruled that such a search was not lawful when the defendant had already been arrested and was in handcuffs.
Gant Ruling Changes DUI Search Guidelines
The Gant ruling is a radical departure from previous case law. In a 1981 case heard by the U.S. Supreme Court concluded that police officers might lawfully conduct a vehicle search as soon as an arrest was made. There were two reasons commonly given. First, to this day, it remains important to remove any weapons contained in the car that the arrested person might try to use. Second, the police do not want an arrested person to conceal or destroy evidence that might be in the car. Based on these two things, it had been standard practice for almost 30 years for the police to search the passenger compartment of the vehicle, the trunk of a car and anything found in the car.
In Arizona v. Gant, Rodney Gant, who was arrested for driving with a suspended driver’s license, challenged the search of his vehicle as being unlawful. He was arrested for a traffic violation, handcuffed and locked in the back of a patrol car where he had no access to his vehicle. During the search, officers found some cocaine in the pocket of a jacket laying on the backseat.
The Court agreed that police are only authorized to search a vehicle in connection with a recent occupant’s arrest if the person is unsecured and could reach into the passenger compartment at the time of the search. The only exception our nation’s highest court authorizes is a search that’s connected with reasonable suspicion that the police will find evidence in the car that’s related to the reason for arresting the occupant.
Only time will tell how much impact Gant will have, but as things stand now, your Washinton State DUI car search incident to arrest may not have been legal and evidence that has been found from that search may be thrown out of court.
So Can an Officer Search my Car on Suspicion of DUI Without a Warrant?
No, this is no longer legal except for very limited situations. If you are driving a vehicle, as in a Washington State DUI or reckless driving or racing case, and are subsequently arrested, the officer does not have authority to search your vehicle.
