The 4th Amendment protects citizens against unreasonable searches and seizure searches can involve the inspection of a person, their surroundings, or property.
Authorities may seize an individual by restricting their movements or stopping them.
After authorities take control of property it is considered seized, and most often if a seizure is invalid, if the search was unwarranted.
The interaction of the police or other authorities with an individual may range from a stop to investigate all the way up to the arrest of an individual.
Sometimes individuals are lead to believe that they are not allowed to leave when they actually can.
If the police want to stop someone and ask him or her questions it is usually required that a person's assistance is necessary or reasonable suspicion that a crime has occurred.
Warrants are court orders that allow the authorities to search and if a warrant is issued, the seizure is usually presumed valid.
However the validity of a warrant can be questioned if false or misleading information or statements are made to the judge to get it.
In these cases the validity of the warrant can be overcome making the seizure invalid.
When the police or other authorities do not have a warrant the burden of proof is on them to prove that the situation warranted the search and or seizure The authorities are usually required to show probable cause, which means that there was reasonable belief that a crime was going to be committed and the person seized was going to be involved in the crime.
If the search, seizure and or arrest of the person is found to be invalid they must be released.
Also any evidence found by authorities during the invalid arrest may be prohibited for use in a trial.
The reasonable expectation of privacy applies to the area of a person as well as their property Basically a search is not executed unless it intrudes upon a person's privacy.
For example if something is visible then it is not private, at the same time if the police are executing a warrant to find a car they are not permitted to search in toolboxes etc.
Search warrants must detail and describe the area that authorities plan to search as well as what they are looking for.
If a person that has control of the property that is to be searched gives consent, the police can validly search the property Police can search without a warrant in several circumstances.
These circumstances include the preservation of evidence and or weapons that may otherwise be destroyed, and to when they are deemed necessary to protect the public from imminent danger.
Examples of this may be the planting of the bomb, or searching a fleeing criminal.
In summary search and seizures are legal procedures that require a warrant, or the suspicion that a crime has actually occurred.
The right to privacy protects individuals from unreasonable search and seizure Evidence may be collected without a warrant if it is believed that the evidence may otherwise destroyed.
However if any of the above is executed under false pretenses the evidence may be prohibited from court.