Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Fourth Amendment

Criminal Law

: Fourth Amendment

CA2: NYPD policy to do BAC test in all duty firearms discharges is constitutional under "special needs" exception

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

The NYPD policy that officers who discharge their firearms must be subjected to a breath test is constitutional. Lynch v. City of New York, 2009 U.S. App. LEXIS 26980 (2d Cir. December 11, 2009): We hold as follows: (1) the District Court did not make a "clearly erroneous assessment of the evidence" when it found that the primary purpose of the breathalyzer policy was not the NYPD's "general interest in crime control" and thus fell under the "special needs" doctrine of our Fourth Amendment jurisprudence; (2) the fact that crime control was one purpose--but not the primary purpose--of the breathalyzer policy does not bar the application of the "special needs" doctrine to the breathalyzer policy; and (3) based on the record at this stage of the proceedings, the breathalyzer policy is reasonable under the three-factor balancing test of the "special needs" doctrine...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on December 13, 2009 (boomark / email).