NCJ Number
152019
Journal
Crime to Court Police Officer's Handbook Dated: (November 1994) Pages: complete issue
Date Published
1994
Length
23 pages
Annotation
This handbook explains issues in the case of United States v. Reed, heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, in 1994, including the warrantless search of a car that has not been impounded and aggravated circumstances; the procedural section of the handbook presents the first part of a two-part examination of police escalation of force.
Abstract
In the Reed case, police tracked a transmitter, placed by a bank employee in money stolen in a robbery, to the trunk of a car parked in the driveway of a house where Reed was found to reside. Securing the keys of the car, the trunk was opened without a warrant and the money was found and used as evidence in a trial that led to Reed's conviction. Reed's attorney argued for suppression of the evidence found in the trunk of the car due to the absence of exigent circumstances that would make a warrantless search reasonable and imperative. The court held that the warrantless search was legal because of the exigent circumstance of the transmitter emitting a signal, which if not turned off as soon as possible, would interfere with the tracking of another transmitter signal should another bank robbery occur during the time the officers were seeking a warrant. The court also held that the movement of the bank employee under gunpoint from the outside of the bank to the inside (she was unlocking the bank door) constituted a forced accompaniment and was thus an aggravating circumstance that enhanced the penalty for the crime. The procedural section outlines the Force Continuum, which identifies six levels of resistance and the appropriate control response. The six levels are psychological intimidation, verbal noncompliance, passive resistance, defensive resistance, active aggression, and aggravated active aggression. A posttest for the reader is included.