On June 10, 2017, the New Jersey Supreme Court decided State v. Dunbar. The unanimous decision overturned state precedent requiring reasonable suspicion of contraband before police can deploy a canine sniff. Suspicionless canine sniffs are now permitted in New Jersey so long as they do not prolong an otherwise lawful seizure. Since 1975, The New […]
Investigative Detentions & Reasonable Suspicion: Part 4
Because it was an investigative detention from the point that Campan took those directed actions toward defendant, the Court must consider whether, based on a totality of the circumstances, the encounter was “justified at its inception” by a reasonable and articulable suspicion of criminal activity. An anonymous tip, standing alone, inherently lacks the reliability necessary […]
Investigative Detentions & Reasonable Suspicion: Part 3
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated.” U.S. Const. amend. IV; N.J. Const. art. I, ¶ 7. Warrantless searches and seizures presumptively violate those protections, but not all police-citizen encounters constitute searches or seizures for purposes of the […]
Investigative Detentions & Reasonable Suspicion: Part 2
Campan asked defendant what she was doing, and she replied that she was smoking a cigarette. Campan testified that he did not observe a cigarette or cigarette butt. Campan asked her why she began to scuffle around the passenger-seat area when he pulled his car up behind hers. Defendant replied that she had been applying […]
Investigative Detentions & Reasonable Suspicion: Part 1
On June 6, 2017, Justice LaVecchia wrote for a six to one majority of the New Jersey Supreme Court in the Monmouth County case of State v. Lurdes Rosario. In this appeal, the Court addresses whether and at what point defendant’s interaction with the police officer escalated from a field inquiry into an investigative detention. […]
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