Here’s a recipe for the stupid criminal files: Fill large packages – about watermelon size – with methamphetamine. Form each package into a watermelon shape and cover each package with a wrapper that is printed to look like a watermelon. Oh, don’t forget to slap an agricultural sticker on each package. Load the packages up ..read more

You’ve been stopped by the police for speeding. Can the officer search your vehicle without your consent? The answer is yes and no. Yes, the officer can search your vehicle, without your consent, if he or she has probable cause to believe your vehicle contains evidence of a crime. This is one of the so-called ..read more

A New Zealand couple’s vacation in Southern California ended in tragedy. The couple, a prominent businessman in New Zealand and his wife were visiting Newport Beach’s iconic outdoor shopping mall Fashion Island. There they were accosted by two men brandishing guns. Perhaps the two men didn’t intend their robbery to end in murder, but it ..read more

A law enforcement officer can perform a temporary investigative detention of an individual only when the officer can articulate specific facts, which considered in light of the circumstances, provides an objective reason to believe the individual is engaged, or about to engage, in criminal activity.  (A detention occurs when an individual does not feel that he or she is free to leave, as contrasted with a consensual police encounter in which a person can just walk away.) Note that the officer’s reasons for believing a detention is warranted is an objective standard—the officer’s assessmen ..read more

The Fourth Amendment provides that law enforcement cannot conduct a search of property or person without a valid warrant. Any warrantless search is unlawful and should law enforcement arrest you pursuant to that search, the arrest itself becomes unlawful. However, there are exceptions where a warrantless search is permitted under the law. One of those exceptions is consent to the search. As I have discussed elsewhere, you are not required under the law to consent to a search, and it is usually a good idea not to. Unfortunately, consent searches are quite frequent because people are often frigh ..read more

With the recent death of OJ Simpson, we are reminded of the police pursuit of OJ’s Bronco through Los Angeles and Orange Counties. While the OJ chase was a slow-speed chase, many police pursuits are high speed and dangerous. Some of these chases have ended in fatalities. Because they are so dangerous, police often terminate the pursuit in the interests of public safety. Fortunately, high speed chases will soon be a thing of the past. In a marriage of low tech and high tech, police cruisers are being fitted with GPS launchers. The launchers, mounted to the front of police vehicles, hold GPS dar ..read more

Many of us do our retail shopping online. Often a Google search helps us to identify the best price for the product we are shopping for. How many times have you searched for a product and found the product being offered on a no-name retail platform or Craigslist or Ebay or even Amazon for a price that is far below what the big retailers are charging. Score! Yes, you may have scored but you may not realize it, but you might be buying a product from a “fence.” A fence is a person who sells stolen merchandise. The buyer of that merchandise can be charged with “receiving stolen merchandise.” Now I ..read more

Every year the FBI publishes an extensive analysis of crime data in the U.S. The crime data for 2022 was recently published and shows a mixed picture. While violent crimes and homicides decreased slightly from 2021, the rates are still high when compared over the past ten years of 2012-2022. The rate of violent crimes for the U.S. took a significant upswing in 2020, but has declined since then, although the rate remains high at 380.7 violent crimes per 100,000 people. (For comparison, 2014 had the lowest violent crime rate in the past 10 years at 361.6 per 100,000.) California was an outlier w ..read more

You might recall a news item from 2021 when a laser pointer was aimed at a Huntington Beach Police Department helicopter investigating a fatal hit and run accident. These types of dangerous pranks are not new to police department arial surveillance and investigations. In this case, the police were able to capture an image of the man pointing the laser by utilizing the helicopter’s thermal camera. The officers in the helicopter called in for an on-the-ground police response to investigate. Patrol officers responded to the apartment building where the image of the laser pointing suspect was loca ..read more

Everyone is familiar with the term “Miranda rights.” This right derives from a 1966 U.S. Supreme Court case, Miranda v. Arizona. The Miranda court held that the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which protects someone accused of a crime from self-incrimination, includes protections for suspects who have been arrested for a crime. Specifically, the court held that when a suspect is arrested, the suspect must be advised that: The suspect had a right to remain silent, anything the suspect said could be used against him or her in a court of law, and ..read more