THE SUPREME COURT AND POLICE PRACTICES: The Unusually Busy 2003-2004 Term

The 2003-2004 term of the Supreme Court was the most important term of the Court for the law enforcement community in the last decade. The Court decided 11 cases dealing with issues concerning actions taken by police ofricers, the largest number of "police practices" cases decided by the Court in the last nine years. In addition, several of these cases are among the most important of the 49 police practices cases decided during this time period. The Court: 1) upheld the arrest of all the occupants of a car when drugs are found in it; 2) permitted police roadblocks seeking information from the public in certain circumstances; 3) refused to suppress physical evidence obtained from Miranda violations; 4) expanded the availability of warrantless car searches incident to arrest to include arrests of recent occupants of the car; and 5) upheld statutes requiring persons stopped on reasonable suspicion to identify themselves.