Georgia Criminal Law Blog

Arizona v. Gant - Click here to read the full opinion.Today the U.S. Supreme Court limited the circumstances under which officers may search the passenger compartment of a vehicle after it’s driver had been arrested.  The Court ruled that an officer can only search a vehicle if it is for officer safety or if there is reason to believe that there is evidence in the car that relates to the crime which the driver was arrested for.The searches that we are talking about here are called searches incident to arrest.  Don’t confuse this with an inventory search, which is done whenever a vehicle is impounded.The practical application of this case will be moderate, but this isn’t a huge opinion for most people that get arrested.  People that have a sober passenger to drive the car, can turn the car over to them and avoid the inventory search.  If there is somebody that can come pick up the vehicle, that would work too.If the officers want to get around this, all they have to do is start towing every vehicle and do inventory searches instead of searches incident to arrest.  I guess I am a cynic.

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