Abstract
[Excerpt] "In recent years, law enforcement officials have honed a new technique for fighting the "War on Drugs:" the suspicionless police sweep of stations and vehicles involved in interstate mass transportation. Single officers or groups of officers approach unfortunate individuals in busses, trains, stations and airline terminals. A targeted traveller is requested to show identification and tickets, explain the purpose of his or her travels, and finally, at times, to consent to a luggage search. As long as "a reasonable person would understand that he or she could refuse to cooperate," the encounter between the law-enforcement official and the traveller is deemed "consensual," not subject to the constraints of the Fourth Amendment."
Publication Date
11-1-1993
Journal Title
The Champion
Publisher
National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Inc.
Document Type
Article
Recommended Citation
Peter Schoenburg & Risa Evans, Unspeakable Suspicions: Challenging the Racist Consensual Encounter,The Champion, Nov. 1993, at 4-8.
Included in
Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, Fourth Amendment Commons, Law and Race Commons, Law Enforcement and Corrections Commons, Social Control, Law, Crime, and Deviance Commons, Substance Abuse and Addiction Commons
Additional Information
Copyright National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Inc. Reprinted here with permission.