Search and Seizure

Can You Hear Me Now? Telephonic Warrants and Automobile Searches
Posted by: Joe Metcalfe
July 13, 2009

Oregon's "automobile exception" to the warrant requirement assumes that a face-to-face warrant is the sole option available to police officers in the field. This premise ignores the widespread ability of police officers to obtain warrants remotely via the telephone. It is time to press Oregon courts to revisit the automobile exception and permit warrantless automobile searches only when obtaining a telephonic warrant would have been impractical.

Continue Reading