Police officers

What Happens When Officers Lose Reasonable Suspicion at a Traffic Stop?

Published on: December 5, 2018 | On behalf of Arnold & Smith, PLLC

Charlotte DWI Lawyer Brad Smith answers the question: “Can the police search my car without a warrant?”

In most instances, police officers are required to have reasonable suspicion when they conduct a traffic stop. Speeding, swerving in and out of lanes, using a phone while driving, or other traffic violations give an officer reasonable suspicion to pull a car over and investigate what is happening. When an officer conducts a traffic stop, he or she usually asks for your license, registration, and insurance, and then runs your information through their system to check you out. However, what happens if the reason the officer conducted the stop, providing reasonable suspicion, disappears? Can officers still conduct the traffic stop and ask for your license? The North Carolina Court of Appeals recently ruled on this issue and found that yes, an officer can continue the traffic stop even if the cause for the stop disappears.

Court of Appeals Rules on Race and Voluntary Consent of Searches

Published on: October 31, 2018 | On behalf of Arnold & Smith, PLLC

Charlotte DWI Lawyer Brad Smith answers the question: “What am I obligated to do if I’ve been pulled for Drinking and Driving?”

Throughout the country, we often hear a lot of debate about an individual, or his or her property, being subjected to search by law enforcement. The Fourth Amendment of the constitution gives us the right to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures. While there are many cases and court opinions that detail when law enforcement is able to search an individual, or his or her property, we often forget that an individual is able to voluntarily consent to a search. With voluntary consent to search comes a whole host of questions. Can a voluntary search be inferred? Are there particular factors that indicate a person has consented to a search? In the recent case of State v. Bartlett, the North Carolina Court of Appeals found that an individual’s race may be a factor in deciding whether or not a person has voluntarily consented to a search.

Can Out-of-Jurisdiction Arrests be Suppressed?

Published on: September 19, 2018 | On behalf of Arnold & Smith, PLLC

Charlotte Criminal Lawyer Brad Smith answers the question: “Can I be arrested without evidence against me?”

Law enforcement officers are not permitted to arrest individuals anywhere they want. Throughout the United States, North Carolina included, there are different jurisdictional restrictions that law enforcement officers face. Local law enforcement are often restricted to making arrests within their own city or county, depending on the specifics of their position and any statutes outlining their jurisdiction. State law enforcement officers, however, generally are able to arrest people and serve outside of one city or county. There are situations in which an officer is permitted to serve outside of his or her jurisdiction, like when actively pursing a suspect. What happens, however, when a law enforcement officer makes an arrest outside of his or her jurisdiction? Can that arrest be suppressed?

Plea Bargaining and Criminal Law

Published on: May 3, 2017 | On behalf of Arnold & Smith, PLLC

Charlotte Criminal Lawyer Brad Smith answers the question:”What is an expungement?”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRNgcf2GsDY

When most people think of the criminal justice system, they likely imagine something similar to an episode of Law & Order. Police officers testifying, prosecutors and defense attorneys arguing, judges slamming gavels and jurors listening in rapt attention. According to experts, while this may be the way things happen on television, it is most assuredly not typical in the real world. An overwhelming majority of cases are resolved through plea bargaining, something that few people fully understand despite the important impact it has on our criminal justice system.

State’s clampdown on public criminal records just another troubling sign of the times

Published on: March 5, 2015 | On behalf of Arnold & Smith, PLLC

J. Bradley Smith of Arnold & Smith, PLLC responds to “The person that called the police doesn’t want to press charges, can I still be prosecuted?”

The political world has been aflutter with outrage at Hillary Rodham Clinton’s use of a personal email account while employed as the Secretary of the United States Government’s Department of State.

In a press conference last week, Clinton said she decided which emails were a part of the public record and which emails were private. The latter, she suggested, had been deleted.

Now an American state—Massachusetts—is giving police officers the same power, only not over email. According to the Boston Globe, the Massachusetts Secretary of State has refused the newspaper’s request for “the names of five police officers caught drunken driving,” for a “report on an officer who was arrested,” for “booking photos of a state trooper,” and for an “entire log of people incarcerated in the state prison system.”

It seems—both at the state and federal levels—secrecy is all the rage.

In Massachusetts, that state’s supervisor of public records told the Globe that public departments have “the discretion to withhold records determined to be covered by CORI.” CORI stands for “Criminal Offender Record Information. The Massachusetts Secretary of State contends that law-enforcement officials have sweeping powers to decide what criminal records are made public, according to the Globe.