Nt1310 Unit 2 Assignment

For our Unit 2 assignment I have been asked to conduct an analysis and application on police encounters with suspects and evidence. The scenario is one that has Officer Taylor, at night, make a stop on a vehicle that Officer Taylor believes to have a tail light out that is covered in colored tape. After the stop is made Officer Taylor approaches the car and remembers that a similar car fitting this cars description was involved in a road side killing of a fellow officer. Officer Taylor sees the driver as an African American female with braids, tattoos, and a nose ring. Officer Taylor has her own personal bias against people who look like this which is apparent when she thinks to herself “Another one of those people we need to get off the street.” Officer Taylor asks the driver to step out of the

In question 5 the issue is whether the gun legally obtained via the “plain view” doctrine. According to Roberson and Wallace the plain view doctrine “authorizes seizure of illegal evidence visible to a police officer if the officer’s access to the object has a Fourth Amendment justification.” (2016) To further expound on “plain view” the officer must have a legal right to be in the place where they make the observation of the incriminating evidence and the officer must immediately recognize the potential incriminating evidence. Lastly, the officer must see this evidence without moving anything that is completely covering the evidence and the officer cannot use any type of technology that would enhance their vision to see evidence. In the scenario Officer Taylor had a legal right to be in the vehicle since she had just pulled the unconscious driver from the vehicle and needed to grab her purse for the driver’s id. When Officer Taylor was in the car she noticed that the glove box had popped open and she could clearly see a gun. Having the legal reason to be in the car and under the “plain view” doctrine she was well within her capacity to legally obtain the