The power of law enforcement has been debated for as long as we have had established police forces. Police have broad powers to investigate criminal activity, including the power to search personal property. However, the police are subject to heavy restrictions regarding privacy.

If specific conditions are met, the police may search your car in Pennsylvania. Vehicle searches generally require a search warrant, although warrantless searches may also be legal. Law enforcement needs reasonable suspicion to pull you over, probable cause that evidence is in your vehicle, and an exigent or emergency circumstance to justify a warrantless vehicle search. At the end of 2020, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania held that a vehicle’s mobility is no longer an exigent circumstance.

If the police searched your vehicle and you are now facing criminal charges, call our Philadelphia criminal defense lawyers for help. Call The Liberty Law Team at (215) 826-3314 to start your case with a free initial evaluation.

Search Warrants for Vehicle Searches in Pennsylvania

Vehicle searches must adhere to the same rules and requirements as other searches and seizures. Primarily, a vehicle search must be authorized by a valid search warrant.

How the Police Obtain Search Warrants

Police request search warrants when they believe they will find evidence of a crime in a particularly private location, such as someone’s home or vehicle. Warrants must be based on probable cause, meaning there must be some articulable proof or reason to believe that evidence of a crime will be found in the location to be searched, such as a vehicle.

The warrant must be reviewed and approved by a judge or magistrate. If the judge or magistrate is not convinced that sufficient probable cause to search a vehicle exists, they can and should refuse to authorize the search warrant.

Our Philadelphia attorney for serious traffic offenses can help you determine if your search was lawful.

Limitations of Search Warrants

Search warrants are not like free passes for the police to search and seize whatever they want. Search warrants must specifically state the place to be searched and the evidence expected to be found.

Warrants must also explain the probable cause that supports the warrant in the first place. A search conducted outside the parameters of a warrant could be challenged, and any evidence seized outside the warrant’s restrictions could be suppressed.

Warrantless Searches

Search warrants can take a bit of time to be approved, and evidence could be lost in the meantime. Law enforcement’s interest in preserving evidence sometimes allows them to conduct searches without a warrant. Specific conditions must be met in such cases for the warrantless search to be legal.

This is particularly important when a vehicle is searched. Since vehicles are mobile, the evidence thought to be inside them may be easily moved and lost. Even so, as explained below, a vehicle’s mobility alone is not enough to justify a warrantless search in Pennsylvania.

Can the Police Search Your Car Without a Search Warrant in Pennsylvania?

The police are allowed to search your vehicle without a warrant under specific circumstances. The general rule of almost any search is that a warrant should be obtained first. However, various circumstances or conditions may allow the police to search your car without a warrant. If a warrantless search happens, tell your attorney right away.

When Are Warrantless Searches Permitted?

The issue of cars being searched by the police has been argued and debated many times in many courts. In Pennsylvania, previous rules allowed the police to search a car if they had reasonable suspicion to pull a driver over, probable cause that evidence of a crime was in the vehicle, and an exigent circumstance.

Exigent circumstances generally involve situations in which immediate action is necessary to prevent the loss of evidence, physical harm, or a suspect’s escape. When searching a vehicle, the police may claim an exigent circumstance if they believe waiting for a warrant would result in the evidence becoming lost.

Exigent Circumstances and Vehicle Searches

At the end of 2020, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania decided in Commonwealth v. Alexander that exigent circumstances no longer include the vehicle’s mobility.

In the Alexander case, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decided that the state constitution’s standard for vehicle searches was stricter than the federal standard and offered greater protection for people’s privacy.

Before, probable cause and the car’s mobility were often enough to justify a warrantless search of a car. Now, however, the police must also show additional exigent or emergency circumstances beyond a car’s mobility that made getting a search warrant impossible or impractical.

The Court specifically stated that a car’s mobility is no longer considered a valid exigent circumstance. The mere fact that the evidence could be moved is not enough to justify a warrantless search.

Given how recent this case is, there may be many questions in the future about what makes an exigent or emergency circumstance.

What Is Probable Cause for a Search of Your Car in Pennsylvania?

Establishing probable cause is not always simple or easy. Defining probable cause is difficult because it may vary from case to case. Generally, probable cause should consist of articulable proof that evidence of a crime can be found inside your vehicle.

Reasonable Suspicion

Before finding probable cause to search your vehicle, the police typically must have reasonable suspicion to pull your vehicle over for a traffic stop unless they actually witness you committing a driving offense or crime and already have probable cause.

All traffic stops, even for minor violations, must be supported by reasonable suspicion. This legal standard prevents the police from stopping people arbitrarily or for unlawful reasons like race or ethnicity.

Establishing Probable Cause

If the police want to search your car after stopping you, they must have probable cause that evidence is in your car. Probable cause is a higher standard, and if prosecutors cannot prove it exists, our Pennsylvania criminal defense attorneys can demand that your charges be dropped or dismissed.

The legal standard for probable cause is hard to pin down. Probable cause could be justified by real physical evidence of a crime or observations made by a police officer. Probable cause is typically examined on a case-by-case basis. The totality of the circumstances of a particular search must be analyzed to determine whether probable cause did indeed exist.

How is Probable Cause Defined?

Probable cause must be more than a mere hunch, intuition, or gut instinct. The police must have reasonable and articulable evidence supporting claims of probable cause. However, the supporting evidence need not be definitive proof of a crime.

Probable cause may be almost anything and often consists of numerous factors. Probable cause is rarely based on only one factor. As such, we may need to review all the facts and details of what happened when your vehicle was searched to determine whether the police had probable cause.

Comparing Reasonable Suspicion to Probable Cause

Reasonable suspicion is not as high a standard as probable cause, and the police do not need to present reasonable suspicion to a judge or magistrate. Often, reasonable suspicion is simply an indication that a traffic stop is necessary.

How to Fight an Illegal Search of Your Car in Pennsylvania

It might be difficult to know if the police can legally search your car until it is too late. People often have a hard time saying no to a police officer, even if they are within their rights to do so. However, if the police searched your car with no warrant and there were no exigent circumstances, their search may have been illegal.

Challenging Illegally Seized Evidence

We can help you challenge and hopefully suppress any evidence illegally seized from your car. Our Delaware County criminal defense attorneys can file pre-trial motions to suppress illegally obtained evidence and keep it from being used against you in court. This will require successfully arguing that the police did not meet all of the requirements necessary to search your car without a warrant.

Making the Police Prove Exigent Circumstances

When the police conduct a warrantless search, they will likely argue that no warrant was necessary because exigent circumstances existed that allowed for the warrantless search. This might very well be the case, but we need to make the police prove it.

Sometimes, the police claim that an exigent circumstance existed, but they cannot offer any substantive evidence to support their claims. The court will not believe that exigent circumstances existed just because the police said so. At that point, we can ask the court to exclude any evidence seized by the police during the warrantless search.

Contact Our Pennsylvania Criminal Defense Attorneys for Assistance

If the authorities searched your car, you might have grounds to challenge the search. Our Northeast Philadelphia criminal defense attorneys can help you fight the evidence from the search and any resulting criminal charges. Call The Liberty Law Team at (215) 826-3314 to begin with a free initial case review.