Legal Question in Criminal Law in Virginia
Search and Seizure
If the police pull you over and arrest you, do they have the right to search your car once you are placed under arrest? Is there probable cause now that you are placed under arrest?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Search and Seizure
they can search your car incident to arrest for the most part.
Re: Search and Seizure
First of all, automobiles are not protected to the same extent against search that homes are. The law generally allows plain sight searchs and searchs of any area within the wingspan of a suspect.
Moreover, the officers could have been conducting either of two types of searches. They may have been doing an investigatory search based on some element of probable cause related to your arrest. Or, they might have been conducting an inventory search pursuant to impound. Strangely enough, inventory searchs are given far more latitude than investigatory searchs.
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