Constitutional Criminal Procedure: Chapter 3

Which of the following, standing alone, can serve as a basis for probable cause

an admission

The US Supreme Court has defined a "search" to occur when

an individual has a subjective expectation of privacy that society considers reasonable and the privacy expectation is infringed

A police officer is considered an expert in the area of gangs and gang behavior. The courts are not permitted to give extra credence to the judgements of the expert when they apply for a search or arrest warrant in a case involving gang behavior

False

Ordinary citizen informants, even when the tip is given anonymously, are always presumed credible (trustworthy) and no further evidence of credibility need to be stated in the affidavit beyond their name, address and their status as a victim of, or witness to, a crime

False

Other 4th Amendment considerations, such as warrants, reasonableness, exigency and good faith are factors that are considered subservient to probable cause.

False

The decision in Illinois v. Gates completely overturned the Aguilar-Spinelli criteria for establishing probable cause based on informant information

False

When the police obtain a handwriting or voice sample from a criminal suspect, the action constitutes a seizure, thereby implicating the 4th Amendment.

False

A citizen contacts the local police department and alleges that a particular person is dealing drugs out of his home. The citizen states that (s)he thought the police should know but does not want to give their name. What information would the officer need to state in the affidavit to satisfy the first prong of the Aguilar-Spinelli (basis of knowledge)?

How, when and where the informant obtained the information

What best characterizes the concept(s) necessary for understanding the application of the 4th Amendment?

Privacy, reasonableness and probable cause

A law enforcement officer's perceptions that a crime is being committed in his or her presence clearly provide what to arrest the person committing the crime?

Probable cause

Which concept is so important that is has been referred to as the "touchstone" of the 4th Amendment?

Reasonableness

Which statement about the concept of reasonableness, as it applies to the 4th Amendment, is true?

Reasonableness is determined on a case-by-case basis

The leading case on corroboration of information provided by an informant is

Spinelli v. US

What is the most effective way to assess reliability of a criminal informant's information?

The accuracy of the past information provided by the informant

A patrol officer stops a car and makes an arrest on the basis of information obtained from a bulletin that officers in another jurisdiction are looking for the driver of a certain car that was described in the bulletin. Assume that the information contained in the bulletin was incorrect. Which statement would be true?

The arresting officer is shielded from any civil liability for false arrest

Which statement about the concept of probable cause is true?

The concept deals with probability of evidence will be found or that the individual committed an offense

Select the most accurate characterization of the US Supreme Court's current view toward the Aguilar-Spinelli two-prong criteria.

The criteria are a good reference point for analyzing probable cause based on informant information, but the applicability to all cases is limited

An officer receives information from dispatch that another jurisdiction is looking for a blue Ford Mustang with Louisiana license plates with a large dent in the passenger side door. The office spots a car fitting this description, which statement is true?

The office has jurisdiction to stop the car and investigate because probable cause is based on the collective knowledge of the police

After it had been determined that a person has standing to make a 4th Amendment claim and that "search" or "seizure" has occurred, the final inquiry is to find whether

The search or seizure was reasonable

A "search" occurs when an expectation of privacy that society is prepared to recognize is infringed

True

A criminal informant's credibility must always be established by a statement of underlying facts and circumstances

True

Assuming that no exception to the warrant requirement is relevant, weaker evidence is more likely to justify the issuance of a warrant than it is to justify a warrantless search or arrest.

True

The US Supreme Court has a strong preference that arrests and seizures be authorized by a warrant

True

Warrantless police actions are presumed to be unreasonable unless based on probable cause

True

When an officer's experience and expertise is relevant to the probable cause determination, the officer must be able to explain sufficiently the basis of that opinion so that it can be "understood by the average reasonably prudent person"

True

US v. De Los Santos illustrates the

continuing validity of the Aguilar-Spinelli two-pronged test

Means to strengthen or confirm the information supplied by the informant with supporting information obtained by law enforcement officers

corroboration

The police suspect that a store is illegally selling illicit drug paraphernalia. A plain clothes detective working undercover enters the store, purchases items, leaves the store and comes back with a search warrant for the store's owner. In terms of the 4th Amendment, the initial possession of the goods by the police

did not constitute a search or a seizure

The change from viewing the Fourth Amendment as law that protected property to a view that the law protected persons was prompted by cases that concerned

electronic surveillance

The Katz v. US case

expanded 4th Amendment protections

The method of establishing probable cause through the use of an informant's information is often referred to as the

hearsay method

The preference that a search and/or seizure be authorized by a warrant is based on the idea that

judgements should be made by a neutral and detached individual

The cases of Aguilar v. Texas and Spinelli v. US established a process for evaluating probable cause based on informant information. According to this test, the informant

must have "sufficient basis" for the knowledge

When information from a criminal informant is used, the name of the informant

need not be disclosed if his or her credibility is otherwise satisfactorily established

Which of the following, standing alone, can serve as the basis for probable cause

observation and evaluation for real or physical evidence

The Katz v. US case is known for establishing that the 4th Amendment protects

people, not places

Based on the Aguilar-Spinelli criteria, in order to establish probable cause in a situation where informant information is secondhand, the affidavit must

show how the 3rd person knows the information furnished to the informant and why the information, from both the 3rd party and the informant, is credible or reliable

Following the decision in Illinois v. Gates,

some states rejected the Gates decision and retained the Aguilar-Spinelli criteria on the basis of their own state constitutions

Reasons the US Supreme Court put into effect the totality of circumstances test for assessing informant information based on the Illinois v. Gates decision include

the need decision factors that could be used in all cases

The common law approach to applying Fourth Amendment to particular cases was to focus on whether

there was a physical intrusion into a constitutionally protected area

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals established a totality of the circumstances test that has been endorsed and applied by other courts in cases that followed. The test is applied to assess probable cause based on informant information. Which of the following is not among the factors considered in the test?

whether the informant information is firsthand or secondhand

Some courts require additional information to establish the veracity/truthfulness of an ordinary citizen informant if the citizen merely provides an anonymous tip. Which of the following is a primary factor, mentioned in the text, used by Georgia courts to assess the veracity/truthfulness of an anonymous tip?

whether the information is from a "concerned citizen"