The police have been illegally searching cars for years. Usually, you have to get a warrant to search anybody—their person, their home, their car—but they've carved out all these exceptions. They've come up with all of these exigent circumstances, and it's really carved up people's Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches and seizures.
A new case, People v. Lopez, says the police cannot enter somebody's car without their consent to obtain information such as their driver's license, insurance information, or registration. So, this case has been constructive in the big scheme related to blocking these illegal searches.
One thing the police were doing is, they would pull somebody over. They'd order the person out of the car, and they'd say the reason they're ordering the person out of the vehicle is for the officer's safety, so they'd win that one every time, especially when people are stupid enough to have tinted windows of their car, and they can't see in there.
So, now that they've got the person out of the car, they're going to say we need to go and get the person's registration or insurance information because most people don't carry that information in their pockets.
So, that pretty much carved out a situation where they could always go in there and search — even if the person didn't consent to it — because they're going to say we need the registration. We need the insurance information; sometimes, people are dumb enough to leave their licenses there.
Now, they're going to go in and get that and not let the person go in and get it because they're going to make a claim or an argument that the person may go in and get a weapon.
So, for our officer's safety, they've got to go in and get it. They've been doing that. The case that allowed them to do that was In re: Arturo, but now that People v. Lopez has been passed, it says they can't do that.
Motion to Suppress Evidence in California
I have a couple of cases pending right now. I will be filing 1538.5 Penal Code Motions, arguing that the police should not have been allowed to search my client's car unless the person consents.
A lot of people get tricked into doingthis—or they have some other reason, like they can see a gun or some illegal contraband in plain sight. Then they might be able to get in there, but now they can't just get in anymore just to go in after the information. So, that's one excellent weapon that has been taken away from the police and given people access to more Fourth Amendment rights.
Another area that I see where you have a lot of good arguments is that they used to be able to get into people's cars every time they smelled Marijuana. They can't do that anymore. Marijuana is now legal in California, so just because they smell it does not give them the ability to go into somebody's car.
In other words, it's not contraband anymore. It's legal to have Marijuana, so why should they be able to go in the car and search the vehicle just because they can smell Marijuana? So, this is another weapon that has attacked the police's ability to search somebody's car.
Don't Give Police Consent to Search Vehicle
The best friend of the police in car searches is consent. People give consent all the time. The police said, hey, you don't mind if we search your car? Sure, go ahead. People are telling them they can search your vehicle when they know they have a gun in it when they know they have drugs in it when they know they have some other illegal contraband in there.
The answer should be no every time. Don't let them search your car. Many of these guys have bodycams now, so we can see that the police are cheating. They're searching people's vehicles without consent. They're going on a fishing expedition to find something. This is not permissible in criminal defense. You can't just search a person's car for any reason.
So, if your car has been illegally searched and they've got some stuff against you and are trying to use it, come to an attorney who knows how to challenge these searches effectively.
