The sixth, and most frustrating exception for defense attorneys, is consent. It is a rare occasion that “go ahead” is the correct answer when a police officer asks to search your property! Under the consent exception to the search warrant requirement, police can search almost anything so long as they have reasonable suspicion and your permission.

The protective weapons search warrant exception is a relatively limited exception that permits police officers to pat-down the outer clothing of a person if they have reasonable suspicion that the person is armed and dangerous. Here, as in previous exceptions, the court weighs the legitimacy of the officer’s perception that the individual is armed and dangerous by using the reasonable person standard. . .

The fourth search warrant exception is referred to as an “inventory search.” During an inventory search the police justify the search of a motor vehicle as an administrative function, as opposed to an investigatory one. During the inventory search exception, police don’t need a search warrant or probable cause. The only requirement is that the vehicle is being lawfully impounded.

Plain view is what it sounds like: if contraband is in plain view, the police can likely lawfully seize it. The legal analysis under this exception has three prongs. First, was the officer lawfully in a position to make the observation? Second, does the officer have lawful authority to access the item? Third, is the item immediately recognizable as contraband?

Under the probable cause exception police officers can search a motor vehicle without a warrant if the vehicle is mobile, or could easily be made mobile, and the police officer has probable cause to believe that contraband or other evidence of a crime is located within the vehicle.

The 4th Amendment of the Constitution protects citizens from unreasonable searches. Warrantless searches are presumptively unreasonable unless it falls within an established exception to the warrant requirement. In this blog series I’m going to identify and analyze each of these seven exceptions in a way that will help nonlawyers better understand when a search warrant is required.