4th, 5th, 6th, Amendments Safeguarding

4th, 5th, 6th, Amendments

Safeguarding Citizens

America places a great deal of importance on the individual freedoms of each of its citizens. The American myth, whether completely true or just part of our cultural psychology, is that this country was founded to preserve and protect individual rights. We rebelled against the British because they didn't respect the rights of individuals and the founding fathers of the country wrote protections of those rights into the foundational legal document of our country, the Constitution. Americans fear the potential oppressive power of and have thus put limits on the powers available to our police forces. Some of the most explicit protections of individual rights occurs in the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments to the Constitution, all of which were adopted as part of the Bill of Rights, which went into effect in 1791. These three Amendments provide an essential balance between individual rights and police power.

The Fourth Amendment guards specifically against unreasonable searches and seizures. Over the years, this has evolved into the police needing a judicially-sanctioned warrant which is supported by probable cause. Although this seems an easy rule to follow, law enforcement officers can often be hampered on a daily basis by confusion about what may really constitute an "unlawful" search. The Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that, except in certain narrowly limited cases, probable cause is a minimum requirement for a reasonable search permitted by the Constitution. (Chambers v. Moreny, 399 U.S. 42, 51 ('70). For law enforcement agencies, this simple requirement can often butt up against an officer's gut instinct that something is wrong and a search needs to take place. The Supreme Court, however, has stated that '[t]he integrity of an individual's person is a cherished value in our society,' searches that invade bodily integrity cannot be executed as mere fishing expeditions to acquire useful evidence: 'The interests in human dignity and privacy which the Fourth Amendment protects forbid any such intrusions on the mere chance that desired evidence might be obtained.' Schmerber, 384 U.S. At 772, 769-70. In other words, the burden on law enforcement officers is high if they want to perform a search within the Fourth Amendments' protections.

The Fifth Amendment guarantees that no American "shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself." Confessions are inherently suspect, and methods of getting confessions have not always been reliable. In modern times, police forces have professional standards produced by respect for the Constitution. Police realize that society in general abhors the use of involuntary confessions and wants to limit police power against individual citizens. The Fifth Amendment also reinforces the idea that while police officers are enforcing the law they also need to follow the law and play fair. "In the end, life and liberty can be as much endangered from illegal methods used to convict those thought to be criminals as from the actual criminals themselves" (Hobbs).