Suspect Searches: Assessing Police Behavior Under the U.S. Constitution

• NCJ Number: 206889
• Journal: Criminology & Public Policy Volume: 3 Issue: 3 Dated: July 2004 Pages: 315-362
• Author(s): Jon B. Gould; Stephen D. Mastrofski
• Date Published: July 2004
• Length: 47 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Justice (NIJ)
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study evaluated the direct observations of police searches against the applicable constitutional standards.

Abstract

This study examined police conformity to the law by evaluating direct observations of police searches in a medium-sized American city located in the middle of illicit drug shipment routes, against the applicable constitutional standards. During observation, the city was experiencing high levels of violent crime, much of it drug related. Many of the city’s residents were African-American, and many experienced concentrated disadvantage such as high levels of poverty, unemployment, and female-headed households with children. The police department selected was regarded as one of the more professional agencies in the State. It ranked in the top 20 percent of departments nationwide in the number of training hours required of recruits. The research asked three questions: How frequently do patrol officers engage in searches? How often do their searches meet constitutional standards? What explains the proclivity to search unconstitutionally? The results of the study show that nearly one-third of searches are performed unconstitutionally and almost none of these are apparent to the court system. The research linked police misconduct to the municipality’s war on drugs but the majority of constitutional violations were concentrated in a small number of otherwise model officers engaged in community policing. Based on researchers’ direct field observations, the analysis suggests that studies of constitutional violations based on secondary or official records touch only the exposed tip of the population of police searches and they may drastically underestimate the extent of constitutional violations. There are substantial costs when the police search unconstitutionally not only to the rights of individuals but also to the legitimacy of law enforcement. This study’s observations were conducted in the midst of the war on drugs, which raises the question of what replication of this study would show. Tables, references