The following is a computer-generated transcription, some grammar and spelling errors may be inherent

Alright guys, welcome to another roadside chat. Today's question is, from an officer in Indiana, would the single purpose container doctrine allow cops to search a vehicles hidden compartment? Alright, so the first thing we want to learn is what is a single purpose container? Okay, a single purpose container is this doctrine that basically says some containers by their shape by their manner of under totality circumstances, the way that they're kept, the what they're packaged in. Things on the outside, are so telling of what to contain what the contents are, that a reasonable officer would know that only contraband is inside. So that's a roundabout way. So in other words, a single purpose container is a container that announces its contents in a manner that only contraband is inside. Okay, the why this is important. This is important because under the Fourth Amendment, in order to search a container, you have to have usually probable cause plus probable cause, plus search incident to arrest probable cause plus motor vehicle, probable cause plus consent, probable cause plus exigency. In other words, there is no such thing as searching a container based off a probable cause alone, it doesn't exist, it's a unicorn. So single purpose container doc doctrine basically saves some of these searches, it allows, because the way that the Supreme Court looks at it is that a single purpose container would not have any privacy interest, and so forth. Let me give you an example of a single purpose container, a drug package, right? A brick of cocaine. It's wrapped up in, you know, paper or duct tape and so forth. Can you see inside of it? No. But do you know that it's packaged in a way that only contraband is inside? Yes, therefore, you don't need any other reasons to search it. The reason the package containing contraband is enough, but don't be fooled, because sometimes you'll have probable cause that a container has contraband inside. But it's not a single purpose container because it could have something else like so for example, there was a case involving a cooler, and the cop smelled the marijuana emanating from the cooler and the cop opened the cooler and found marijuana. But the problem is the under this situation, the cooler was not near the guy wasn't search incident to arrest it wasn't part of the motor vehicle. The problem is that there was no other reason to get into the cooler because it was not a single purpose container. The cooler could have other things in it nonconscious ban bologna sandwich, Capri Suns, you get my point, not just marijuana in at this time was it was contraband. Alright, so now we get to the cops question, would the single purpose container doctrine allow cops a search of vehicles hidden compartment? Other words? Could the hidden compartment be viewed as a single purpose container? The answer is most likely not. I don't have any cases on it. I haven't seen it. But I don't really see courts, or at least prosecutors applying the single purpose container to hidden compartments of a vehicle. And here's for good reason. Frankly, you don't need the single purpose container doctrine to save the day for the searches. Why? Because the COP is going to have probable cause anyway. And if you have probable cause plus motor vehicle, that is the motor vehicle exception, why not just use that? Forget the whole more complicated argument about single purpose container? So that's really the answer here. We don't need the single purpose container to even search the hidden compartment because you're going to have if you have probable cause you have probable cause and just use the motor vehicle exception. All right. Hey, so I'm gonna start, you know, working on the format of these videos, you know, just repeat the question, do a better job repeating the question, like we do here, a little bit of a, you know, better reminder what the question is, as we talk about it. And as we get more, I'll even try to, you know, put some quotes in here from cases and so forth. Just realize I do the best job I can with the time I have, but we're getting better because you guys are giving me some great feedback about these. You're loving them. I like making them There you go. Alright, that's all I got for you. Do me a favor for you. You leave hit the like button. Comment. I don't care if it's a negative comment or a positive comment. I know some people, you know, some of these some cop haters out there. watch my channel and they leave comments that are like, hey, you know what, this is a free country. You know what, just leave a comment if that's if you're if you don't agree with the video don't agree then don't agree with the video that's totally fine. I'm not insulted. And then finally tell your friends about us. Alright. Alright, until next time my friends stay safe.
When it comes to law enforcement training, we are the gold standard, visit blue to gold.com or call 888-579-7796 to learn more about our training books and free webinars. Also, don't forget to like, subscribe and share this channel.