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Cal.4: Subjective intent to conduct a pretextual inventory is relevant

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Subjective intent of the officer is usually irrelevant, except for inventory search. This inventory clearly was a criminal investigative search under the pretext of an inventory. The community care taking function was not served by this search. People v. Torres, 2010 Cal. App. LEXIS 1641 (4th Dist. September 21, 2010): Just as inventory searches are exceptions to the probable cause requirement, they are also exceptions to the usual rule that the police officers' “[s]ubjective intentions play no role in ordinary, probable-cause Fourth Amendment analysis.” (Whren, supra, 517 U.S. at p. 813.) We have “never held, outside the context of inventory search … that an officer's motive invalidates objectively justifiable behavior under the Fourth Amendment...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on September 24, 2010 (boomark / email).