We round up the legislative action so you don’t have to. Multiple bills are proposed and being debated about issues including Miranda with minors, use of canines, pretext stops, consent searches, geofence warrants, colorimetric field drug tests and more. Get up to date here.
In this edition, we learn about a new, revamped bill that could be a major change to the auto burglary statute, and we have some fun testing our knowledge about burglary and theft statutes.
An astute LEGALUPDATES.COM reader raised questions about Penal Codes 69 and 148, and how they relate to interactions with suspects when they resist, flee or fight. We discuss the differences and overlap in this From the Classroom article.
The “Instrumentality of a Crime” doctrine applies when there is a “fair probability” or “substantial chance” that physical evidence will be found in a vehicle that was used to commit a crime. Do you need a warrant to search it? Should you get one either way?
We delve into a topic for which there is very little case law: drug-detecting dog-sniff searches of a person’s body. Case law on canine searches of cars and luggage gives us some guidance, but a current appellate case in New York may help explain what level of suspicion you need to conduct the more personal body-sniffs.
Following the important U.S. Supreme Court decision in N.Y. State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen in 2022, aspects of the law are being challenged. Read more about this recent one.
In this teaching article, we explore past cases that help guide arson investigations and consider situations that should trigger the seeking of a search warrant. Two cases decided in 2023 also help define some of the finer details of arson investigations.
In this edition of “From the Classroom,” we review several cases and penal codes covering threats to various public or elected officials. Several penal code sections define which positions are covered, and we offer some advice on how to handle these cases in the field.
As our calendars rolled over to 2024, new legislation took effect to update the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) and expand the rights of employees to use marijuana off duty. Specifically, AB 2188 and SB 700 added off-duty cannabis users to the list of protected classes under FEHA, but interestingly exempted the building and construction trades. While the legislation provides narrow exceptions to this rule, police officers, deputy sheriffs, firefighters, dispatchers, and other public employees are not exempted, and are now generally afforded statutory protections for off-duty cannabis use.
We look at cross-jurisdictional authority when an officer issues a citation outside his or her jurisdictional limits. The law is specific, and you or the prosecutor need to bring the receipts to court if you want the cite to hold.