What is a Search Incident to Arrest?
First, a little background is in order. The Fourth Amendment guarantees the people a right to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures. Over the years, this right has come to mean, among other things, that police officers ordinarily may not search a person or his private spaces unless the officer has probable cause to believe that a search would turn up evidence of crime. As with virtually every rulein existence, though, there are exceptions to the probable cause requirement. One such exception is the search incident to a lawful arrest. When lawfully arresting a suspect for a crime, the Court has said, a police officer may search the arrestee, as well as the area within the arrestee’s control, without any basis for believing that such a search would be fruitful. The original reason for the search-incident-to-arrest rule was to prevent the suspect from reaching for a weapon or attempting to destroy incriminating evidence. And indeed, one can understand the need to search inc
