Enhance Consent Search Policies
Although the law requires a minimum standard of probable cause for police to justify a search, officers that have no reason to suspect criminal activity may still ask for “consent” to search at a traffic stop. In fact, many law enforcement officers rely on the use of consent searches in the absence of an existing legal basis for a search. Because most people do not realize they have the right to say “no” to a consent search, many Texans are subjected to them.
The problem: consent searches rarely result in the discovery of contraband or other wrongdoing. As such, the practice of conducting consent searches diminishes public safety by diverting critical resources (officer time and energy) away from more productive crime-fighting tasks. Furthermore, because most consent searches are conducted without written and verifiable permission for the search, defendants have the opportunity to contest the search in court – which poses the risk that even a fruitful search which does produce contraband may not result in a prosecutable case.