The case is Kansas v. Glover. In 2016, a patrolling sheriff’s deputy ran the plates on a Chevrolet pickup truck for no reason or purpose that was legal. The deputy learned the truck’s owner, Charles Glover, had a revoked driver’s license. A warrantless search was therupon conducted even though the Constitution prohibits a search without a warrant in advance of the search. The rule is routinely broken whenever the police want to conduct a search.
“Kansas has a different take on what the Constitution allows. “The Fourth Amendment permits brief investigative stops—such as the traffic stop in this case,” the state argues in its principal brief, “when a law enforcement officer has a particularized and objective basis for suspecting” illegal activity. In the state’s view, it simply does not matter if innocent drivers happen to get stopped based on the false assumption that someone else is behind the wheel.
“While it is certainly possible that the registered owner of a vehicle is not the driver, ‘it is reasonable for an officer to suspect that the owner is driving the vehicle, absent other circumstances that demonstrate the owner is not driving,'” the state maintains. “That is the very point of investigative stops—to confirm or dispel an officer’s suspicion.”
No, the police are not allowed to investigate because of their feelings, whims or suspecions. Even though it has become common and accepted for police to engage in warrantless searches it is prohibited by the laws of these United States.
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