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When can police search the trunk of your car?

By Ann MacDonald 

You're driving down the street, thinking about your big plans for the night ahead. Unfortunately, you're so deep in contemplation that you don't notice the pesky stop sign on the corner and you drive right through. You know the police officer who was sitting in front of the coffee shop has the right to pull you over and give you a ticket. But, can he also look in your car and your trunk while he's at it?

The Fourth Amendment

Most people know that the fourth amendment protects U.S. citizens against "unreasonable searches and seizures." This means that without a search warrant, the police cannot search your home, your office or your person. However, there is also a little loophole in the amendment known as "probable cause" that allows law enforcement personnel to search when there is evidence that a crime has been committed.

So, what about your car? Well, your car is treated a little differently from your home, despite the fact that you may practically live in it. Since your vehicle is usually in public view  and is a mode of transportation, the court has generally determined that it is not subject to the same expectations of privacy. That does not mean that the police can just search your car for no reason, though. They still need to have probable cause.

What Constitutes Probable Cause?

Police cannot just randomly stop you and search your car for no reason. However, if you have committed a moving violation or have broken the law in other ways, the police have every right to detain you. While they may stop you legally, it does not mean they can search the car. They can only search your car if there is something that reasonably leads them to believe that there is contraband or evidence of illegal activity in the vehicle. This is also frequently described as having an "articulable and reasonable suspicion'' that there was illegal material in the car. What would constitute this belief? Imagine that you had been smoking a joint as you drove… The presence of illegal drugs in your car would give the police officers the probable cause they need to search the remainder of your car, including the trunk. Their search can also extend to closed containers within the trunk such as boxes, bags or luggage.

Of course, you probably were not stupid enough to have marijuana smoke pouring out of the window when the cops pulled you over. So, what else might be considered probable cause? Well, if the fraternity brother you locked in the trunk as a prank starts banging and yelling, the officers would be within their rights to open it.

Even if you hadn't committed a moving violation, if police saw you place something in your car that could be considered contraband (weapons, drugs, stolen merchandise) they would have probable cause to search the whole vehicle. In all of these instances the police may legally proceed with a warrantless search.

More often than not, probable cause is a gray area of the law. If the police search your vehicle without any visible reason, against your wishes, you may want to have an attorney argue that probable cause did not actually exist. If the judge determines that there was no probable cause and that the search was unlawful, any evidence of illegal activity found in the search will not be admissible in any case against you.

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