court said that the cocaine should not have been used as evidence because police failed to obtain a warrant before searching the car. The court ruled that in the absence of any emergency police could not seize a citizens propertywithout the intervention of a neutral magistrate (Supreme Court to rule1).Throughout the following example many questions will arise on the actions the police took in the incident. The following was argued in United States v. Whitehead, where a man was found guilty of cocaine possession. 3 A man boarding a train from Miami, Florida to New York City was seen by law enforcement officers as acting suspicious and calling attention to himself. The officers decided to check him and talked to both the taxi driver and ticket agent, both of who had contact with him. The officers concluded that he was picked up at a motel known for drug traffickers and paid for his ticket in all cash. With this in mind the officers confronted the man and noticed he broke out in a profuse sweat, they told the man that they were conducting a narcotics test Police Officers Often Misuse and Overuse their Powers when it comes to Conducting Searches on Persons or Propertyand asked to check his bags. He declined. He boarded the train without difficulty. The officers then contacted Amtrak officers who got on the train when it stopped in Washington D.C. With them came two drug-sniffing dogs. The officer knocked on the door of the man with the dog and asked for permission to search his bags with the dogs. The defendant then allowed him to do so. The dogs were attracted to one of the man's bags, which in turn revealed three kilograms of cocaine (Kingston 5). Now many questions are raised in a situation like this. First what did the defendant do that was so suspicious, was he walking frantically? Avoiding officers? Constantly checking his bags? Second, what is the train considered? Is it a Public Place? Or is it considered to be...
