Evidence of Crime

A consent search can be described as an investigation made by an endorsed person after the person under search/ subject of the search has willingly consented (Gaines, & Miller, 2008). Consent search is advantageous in that the subject has the right to refuse or postpone the search; s/he can get enough time to keep his premises in order before the search and lastly, he can transfer all objects that can be used as evidence of crime before he agrees to the search.

There are, however, some situations in which a consent search can be questioned if it truly was voluntarily. These include; when the officers conducting the search do not have a search warrant and intrude into the subject’s premises; s/he can claim that the police forced him, when the subject claims that s/he was not aware that a person can refuse a search and the search officers did not inform him/ her of the rights (Case Briefs), and lastly, when the consent was agreed verbally therefore there is no signature evidence on the consent form that the subject voluntarily agreed to the search.

The rule of law from Schneckloth v. Bustamonte suggests that to determine the voluntariness to search requires the entirety of circumstances indicating that the subject voluntarily allowed the search (Case Briefs). A controlled delivery can be described as a procedure of allowing unlawful substances or objects to pass through, into or out of a given territory under the supervision of the knowledgeable authorities with the aim of identifying the people concerned with the commission of the crime (Lee, 2004, p. 255).  Thus it is a technique used to detect crimes that are organized at national and international levels.

If police do not have a probable cause that an object in plain view is contraband, they do not have the right to seize it until they acquire a search warrant that will allow them to investigate further. The findings of United States v. Gillenwaters regarding the plain view policy when police respond to certain emergencies affirm that a police is free to collect evidence without warrant if he is responding to emergency issues (Open Jurist).