CJ 2400
Understanding Procedural Law
Quiz, Chapters 7 & 9

 

Indicate on the Grade Master Answer Form the best answer to the question by completely marking the box for the letter corresponding to the correct response. “True” is “A” and “False” is “B” on the Form. If your name is not on the Answer Form, you will not receive credit. Please return both the test and the Answer Form.

 

Multiple Choice

 

1. Under which if any, of the following situations may an officer legally search the person and close personal effects of an arrestee?

 

A. When the person has been arrested for driving while intoxicated for which that person may be booked into a jail.

B. Where a person has been arrested for an attack on a patron in a mall parking lot.

C. Where a person has been arrested for the offense of possession of heroin.

D. All of the above allow searches of the person and effects.

 

2. The __________________ doctrine states that items within the sight of an officer who is legally in the place from which the view is made may properly be seized without a warrant.

 

A. consent

B. plain view

C. abandoned property

D. arrest

 

3. For a law enforcement officer to seize items under the plain view doctrine, the officer must have probable cause that the items are which of the following types of property:

 

A. property which was obtained unlawfully

B. property the possession of which is unlawful (contraband)

C. property constituting evidence of an offense

D. All of the above.

 

4. The “immediately apparent” requirement of the plain view doctrine must be based on which of the following standards of proof:

 

A. beyond a reasonable doubt

B. certain knowledge

C. probable cause

D. reasonable suspicion

 

 

 

5. The use of which of the following sense enhancement devices is considered a search and may not be used by police to attain evidence without a warrant under the plain view or open field doctrines:

 

A. flashlight to look in a car

B. thermal imaging device

C. binoculars

D. All are allowed.

 

6. A search incident to an arrest that occurred within the home of the arrestee could include the area within the arrestee’s immediate dominion and control and could include:

 

A. the basement when the person was arrested in the upstairs bedroom.

B. attic when the person was arrested in the main floor living room.

C. closet next to the dining room when the arrest occurred in the dining room.

D. automobile of the arrestee if the arrestee possessed the keys to the car.

 

7. Police officers request a search warrant to search a home for the weapon used in and the proceeds of a robbery. The court issued a search warrant for the proceeds, but accidently omitted the weapon from the warrant. When police execute the search warrant, they find the weapon in plain view, but not the proceeds. Which of the following is accurate regarding the seizure of the evidence?

 

A. Police cannot seize the weapon because they knew they were likely to discover it.

B. Police cannot seize the weapon because it might be loaded.

C. Police cannot seize the weapon since they did not find the proceeds.

D. Police can seize the weapon even though they knew they were likely to find it, if the other requirements of the plain view doctrine are met.

 

8. Which of the following must be present for police to conduct a valid inventory search of a vehicle?

 

A. The police agency has a vehicle inventory policy

B. Officers of the police agency routinely follow a vehicle inventory policy.

C. Police gained lawful possession of the vehicle.

D. All of the above.

 

9. Police arrest a suspect pursuant to a valid warrant. The officers:

 

A. must have probable cause to search the suspect.

B. may only pat down the outer clothing of the suspect.

C. may only search the suspect’s person.

D. may search the suspect and the area under the suspect’s immediate dominion and control.

 

10. While executing a valid search warrant, a police officer observes stereo equipment that seems out of place in the apartment and marijuana. The plain view doctrine will permit the officer:

 

A. to seize the marijuana only.

B. to seize the stereo equipment in order to check the serial numbers and to seize the marijuana.

C. to move the stereo equipment to record serial numbers for later investigation and to seize the marijuana.

D. turn on the stereo, smoke the marijuana, and kick back.

11. The area immediately around an arrestee and under an arrestee’s immediate dominion and control from which the arrestee could grab a weapon is known as:

 

A. the pick-up area.

B. the surrounding area.

C. the lunge area.

D. the arrest area

 

12. Items in plain view or inadvertently found in a location police are allowed to search pursuant to a search warrant may be seized if police have ________________ to believe the items are evidence or fruits of a crime or contraband, even if the items are not named in the warrant.

 

A. reasonable suspicion

B. probable cause

C. intuition

D. Items not specifically named in a search warrant may not be seized.

 

13. Where probable cause exists to search an automobile for property that could be hidden within the automobile, the search

 

A. is limited to any place in the automobile where the object of the search could reasonably be hidden.

B. requires consent by the driver and is limited by the scope of the consent given by the driver of the automobile.

C. is limited by the objects that the officer observes under plain view.

D. has no limits concerning the scope of the search.

 

14. Based on information from a reliable informant, the police developed probable cause for a search of Laverne’s automobile for the purposes of looking for a large stolen desktop computer. Inside the passenger compartment, the police found a small purse that they wished to open. At this point no probable cause for arrest existed. Complete with the correct response.

 

A. The police could not open Laverne’s purse even with probable cause to search the automobile for the computer.

B. Enforcement officials could look for the stolen desktop computer inside the auto and open the pursse just to see what might be found therein.

C. The police could open the purse since probable cause to search the automobile gives power to search anything contained within.

D. Any search of an automobile does not require any probable cause since one has little Fourth Amendment expectation of privacy in an automobile.

 

15. Under the search incident to arrest theory, the historical rationale(s) to permit the search are:

 

A. the need to be certain that the subject is disarmed

B. the need to see obtain and preserve any evidence of crime for later use at trial.

C. the desire to take away items of personal enjoyment that might make the individual more comfortable while in custody.

D. A and B are correct responses.

 

 

 

16. Following a proper arrest, the police may search:

 

A. anything owned or possessed by the arrestee no matter where it can be found.

B. any object which could contain evidence and which was within the arrestee's immediate dominion and control.

C. an arrestee’s backpack that is in the next room.

D. A and C are correct responses.

 

17. During the late fall season, when domestically grown marijuana changes color at harvest time, the Humboldt County Sheriff’s office routinely flew one of its helicopters over many of the backyards of the Humboldt County residents. On one of these over flights, a sheriff’s deputy recognized what appeared to be multiple marijuana plants growing in one backyard. The officer confirmed the original suspicion by reducing the helicopter’s altitude and getting a closer look. There was no doubt that the plant growing in the backyard was marijuana. Complete with the following correct response.

 

A. This over flight designed to observe marijuana growing meets the requirements of the plain

view doctrine and the officers were not violating any expectation of privacy possessed by the marijuana-growing resident.

B. Flying above the backyards of the Humboldt County residents looking for those residents who grow marijuana violates their expectation of privacy under the Fourth Amendment by conducting a search without any probable cause.

C. The plain view doctrine would have been appropriate had the pilot not lowered his altitude that constituted an additional search in violation of the expectation of privacy of the occupier of the backyard marijuana patch.

D. The plain view doctrine will not work here because the most people understand that police spotting of the marijuana would normally be unlikely since the discovery of criminality under the plain view doctrine must be inadvertent and not a planned event. Here the discovery was planned by the police when they went looking for growing marijuana and expected to find some growing.

 

18. Inventory searches have been determined to be reasonable searches under the Fourth Amendment because such searches generally serve all of the reasonable policy goals except:

 

A. protecting an owner's property from deterioration or loss while it is in the custody of the police.

B. helping to minimize against false claims of lost, stolen, or vandalized property by the owner.

C. assisting in protecting the police from danger from the hazardous or noxious contents of the property.

D. allowing police to obtain criminal evidence for which no other method exists to lawfully obtain the evidence.

 

19. Under the current case law interpretation, the legal standards necessary to make a lawful seizure under the plain view doctrine require

 

A. that the police officer had a lawful right to occupy the physical position necessary to view the seizable property.

B. that the officer had not expected to make the discovery of the evidence and its discovery was truly inadvertent.

C. that the incriminating nature of the evidence was clearly and immediately apparent to the officer.

D. A and C are required to be present for a valid seizure under the plain view doctrine

 

20. Bob is arrested in his three room apartment. As a search incident to that arrest the police may search:

 

A. Bob and all of his apartment.

B. only Bob.

C. Bob, all of his apartment and his car that is parked out front.

D. Bob and that part of his apartment under his immediate control.

 

21. An officer knocks on the door of a suspected drug dealer, who invites the officer into the house. While in the kitchen, the officer notices a marijuana plant on the windowsill. This evidence can be legally seized under the:

 

A. emergency search of a person rule.

B. emergency search of property rule.

C. plain view doctrine.

D. good faith exception.

 

22. To lawfully seize evidence ________, officers must have a legal right to be in the viewing area and must have probable cause to believe that the evidence is somehow associated with criminal activity.

 

A. in plain view

B. incident to an arrest

C. incident to an interrogation

D. by sneak and peek

 

23. Bert and Ernie live together in a one bedroom house on Sesame Street. Police have information that Bert is dealing marijuana to children on Sesame Street. Bert is not home when Ernie gives consent to the police to search the house. Based on Ernie’s consent, police search the house and find numerous small bags of marijuana in the bedroom. This evidence:

 

A. should be suppressed since only the room in which the police and Ernie are located could be searched.

B. should be suppressed since police could not search the house since Bert is not home.

C. should be admitted since police could search the entire house.

D. should be suppressed since police must contact Bert to get his consent before the search.

 

24. Referring to the problem immediately above, Bert returns home before police find the marijuana. Bert immediately demands that police end the search. Police continue to search and find the numerous small bags of marijuana in the bedroom. This evidence:

 

A. should be suppressed since police could only search the room in which the police and Ernie are located could be searched.

B. should be suppressed since Bert has now refused consent to search the home.

C. should not be suppressed since police could search the entire house based on Ernie’s consent.

D. should be suppressed since police were required to wait until Bert returned to get his consent before the search.

 

 

 

25. Seizures of evidence under which of the following circumstances are not considered searches:

 

A. abandoned property

B. open fields

C. plain view

D. None are searches.

 

26. Which of the following types of property may not be abandoned?

 

A. motor vehicles

B. personal property

C. real property

D. All of the above may be abandoned.

 

27. As interpreted by the Supreme Court of the United States, garbage or trash placed at the curb that the owner no longer wants or has any interest in using in any way:

 

A. carries an expectation of privacy from everyone except from the trash pick-up person.

B. still carries an expectation of privacy since the person abandoning the property still expects that only the trash people will look through it.

C. carries an expectation of privacy in the original owner which cannot be defeated by police activity.

D. indicates that the owner no longer has any desire to assert ownership or assert any expectation of privacy in the property.

 

28. A subject is suspected of dealing cocaine from hotel or motel rooms. After spending the night in a Hilton Hotel, the subject leaves his room with his luggage, pays his bill, and leaves the premises. Police officers are then permitted to enter the room by the hotel’s management without a search warrant. In the room, police find packets of cocaine in a desk drawer. The found cocaine packets:

 

A. can be used as evidence against the suspect based on the doctrine of abandonment.

B. cannot be used as evidence since the suspect continued to have an expectation of privacy in the room

C. can be used as evidence against the suspect based on the doctrine of plain view

D. should be used by the police to have a party in the room with some hookers supplied by the hotel.

 

29. The ______________ doctrine states that items in open fields are not protected by the Fourth Amendment guarantee against unreasonable searches and seizures.

 

A. consent

B. open fields

C. abandoned property

D. arrest

 

 

 

30. The area immediately surrounding a house, such as a yard, and small structures near a house, such as a shed, are known as:

 

A. curtilage

B. open field

C. protected area

D. airspace

 

31. Without a warrant, police may not attain evidence in an enclosed backyard by ___________ the yard.

 

A. physically entering

B. aerial surveillance of

C. using binoculars to look into

D. none of the above are allowed

 

32. Which of the following is correct regarding the officer’s knowledge of the status of an item seized under the plain view doctrine:

 

A. The officer may conduct a further investigation of the item.

B. The officer can move the item to inspect it for identifying information, such as a serial number.

C. It must be immediately apparent to the officer that the item is seizable, without further prying or examination.

D. The officer may preliminarily seize the item until it is determined whether it is seizable.

 

33. Which of the following is not a requirement for seizing an item pursuant to the plain view doctrine:

 

A. Officer must have gained awareness of the item solely by sighting it.

B. The officer must be in the physical position legally when sighting the item.

C. The officer must have reasonable suspicion that the item is seizable.

D. It must be immediately apparent that the item is seizable.

 

34. A farmer has a diminished expectation of privacy in an open field surrounding the farmhouse because

 

A. the law distinguishes between the privacy given a home and that level of privacy expected

in an open field.

B. an open field is beyond the curtilage of a dwelling house and, therefore, an occupier of open land would not expect privacy in such a location.

C. the farmer normally has taken no steps to restrict persons from looking at his fields.

D. All of the above are correct responses.

 

35. Which of the following is not an example of an action by a person indicating an intention to abandon an item of personal property?

 

A. throwing the item away in a public place

B. denying ownership of the item

C. placing the item in a container next to the house

D. failing to claim property over a long period

 

36. Property that is not attached to land or a building that is generally movable is:

 

A. personal property

B. real property

 

 

C. discarded property

 

 

D. private property

 

 

 

37. The trash can in the picture above is sitting on the curb next to the street. Based on your knowledge of the use of the can, the contents of the trash can would:

 

A. be considered abandoned property because of where the trash can was left.

B. be considered abandoned property because the owner clearly intended to abandon the can.

C. not be considered abandoned property because the owner has not shown an intent to abandon.

D. This question insults your intelligence and you refuse to answer.