New Jersey State Police troopers are asking drivers for permission to search their cars without a warrant in increasing numbers, according to a data report issued today by the state Office of the Attorney General. Probable-cause searches are down, and the two trends are linked.
The report was the first aggregate data release done by the state Office of Law Enforcement Professional Standards, after nearly a decade's worth of similar reports were issued under a federal consent decree reached by the state to curb racial profiling practices in the 1990s.
There were 245 requests of drivers by troopers to search a motor vehicle during May and June of 2009, compared with 186 consent requests in the previous six months -- up by nearly one-third, in just one-third the time. Similarly, the number of consent searches actually performed jumped to 231 in two months from 146 in six months.
Here's why, according to the state:
"The increase in the number of requests for consent to search a motor vehicle and the number of consent searches actually conducted by state troopers may be due in part to a decision of the New Jersey Supreme Court.
"In State v. Pena-Flores, 198 N.J. 6 (2009), the court outlined the circumstances in which law enforcement officers in New Jersey may conduct a search without a warrant under the automobile exception. The court's decision has served to limit the use of exigent circumstances as a basis for the warrantless searches of automobiles. The State Police has since modified its practices and procedures to limit the use of exigent circumstances as a basis to conduct warrantless searches of automobiles. The total number of probable cause searches reported here is 279 searches, substantially fewer than would be expected in a two-month period based on the 3,306 probable cause searches reported for six months in the Eighteenth Data Report. Thus, the increases in consent requests and consent searches conducted is likely the result of individual state troopers utilizing consent requests as one of the few remaining exceptions to the warrant requirement where probable cause exists to believe a stopped vehicle contains contraband or evidence of a crime."
