Illegal Search?

[180ls1]

At Mission beach on Saturday i watched two SDPD officers driving a rhino stop at at someones stuff and search it. The people were in the water when this happened and one officer got out and started unzipping the kids zippers and going through his stuff in his backpack. I never saw the kids smoking or drinking or doing anything out of the ordinary. Also the guys were just patrolling the beach and found the stuff at random there amongst all the other people and their stuff. The never questioned the kids or anything and just took off.

What was going on there? It looked like a warrant-less search to my untrained eyes.

[CBR_rider]

A warrantless search doesn't in and of itself equal an illegal search, but without being there and speaking with the officers no one here will be able to tell you why they did it much less if it was legal or not.

[Bert Gamble]

I am not LE, but it might be like in the airport. "Unattended baggage will, and personal belongings may be treated as a danger". That is pretty close to what the recording says.

[180ls1]

A warrantless search doesn't in and of itself equal an illegal search, but without being there and speaking with the officers no one here will be able to tell you why they did it much less if it was legal or not.

Ah ok.

I am not LE, but it might be like in the airport. "Unattended baggage will, and personal belongings may be treated as a danger". That is pretty close to what the recording says.

Doesn't there have to be some form probably cause though?

[SVT-40]

What expectation of privacy is there when one leaves there items unattended on the beach? No warrant is needed to look through abandoned property... How do you know whether or not someone reported that the items were abandoned, or contained contraband?

So basically everything is just speculation related to the incident you saw....


Maybe you should have asked the officers at the time?? I'm sure they could have answered your questions...

[SVT-40]

Doesn't there have to be some form probably cause though?

Part of a officers job is property keeping. So if one finds an item which appears to be abandoned, looking inside it would be reasonable to try and determine if it was truly abandoned, or to try and identify the owner of the property.

[180ls1]

What expectation of privacy is there when one leaves there items unattended on the beach? No warrant is needed to look through abandoned property... How do you know whether or not someone reported that the items were abandoned, or contained contraband?

So basically everything is just speculation related to the incident you saw....


Maybe you should have asked the officers at the time?? I'm sure they could have answered your questions...

Part of a officers job is property keeping. So if one finds an item which appears to be abandoned, looking inside it would be reasonable to try and determine if it was truly abandoned, or to try and identify the owner of the property.

Well i dont see them opening up cars in the parking lot and searching through them. So a parked car with no one in it is legal to search also then? These items went abandoned and the owners were less them 100 feet away at the time of the search but there was no verbal contact between the parties.

And i dont know if anything was reported but the odds of them finding that specific backpack in the manner they did leads me to believe there is less then 1% chance of that.

[SVT-40]

Well i dont see them opening up cars in the parking lot and searching through them. So a parked car with no one in it is legal to search also then? These items went abandoned and the owners were less them 100 feet away at the time of the search but there was no verbal contact between the parties.

Cars do have an expectation of privacy, although not to the same degree as ones home. Cars are registered and ownership can be easily established.....Remove a vehicles license plates and cover or remove the VIN and that may be enough reasonable suspicion for officers to conduct a limited search to try and determine if the vehicle is stolen and to identify the owner....

Leaving bags on a beach....Not so.

In addition with what happened in Boston leaving unattended bags anywhere there are large amounts of people might make some folks suspicious enough to call the cops.....And could be enough for a limited search to determine if there were anything suspicious about the bag...

And i dont know if anything was reported but the odds of them finding that specific backpack in the manner they did leads me to believe there is less then 1% chance of that.

As I said you should have asked them at the time..Only they can give the answers you are looking for.

[gogohopper]

What expectation of privacy is there when one leaves there items unattended on the beach? No warrant is needed to look through abandoned property... How do you know whether or not someone reported that the items were abandoned, or contained contraband?

So basically everything is just speculation related to the incident you saw....


Maybe you should have asked the officers at the time?? I'm sure they could have answered your questions...

Must be dozens of abandoned bags, purses and even cameras at this beach.

[SWalt]

Cars do have an expectation of privacy, although not to the same degree as ones home. Cars are registered and ownership can be easily established.....Remove a vehicles license plates and cover or remove the VIN and that may be enough reasonable suspicion for officers to conduct a limited search to try and determine if the vehicle is stolen and to identify the owner....

Leaving bags on a beach....Not so.

In addition with what happened in Boston leaving unattended bags anywhere there are large amounts of people might make some folks suspicious enough to call the cops.....And could be enough for a limited search to determine if there were anything suspicious about the bag...




As I said you should have asked them at the time..Only they can give the answers you are looking for.

I can understand your reasons, and who knows, there could have been an officer with binos scanning the beach and saw something and had someone check it out. But......is questioning a cop who is not searching your bag asking for a stupid prize?

[44fred]

If someone left a bag unattended, I would expect it to be looked at if the Police were doing their job.
As a younger family when we would go to the beach, someone always stayed with our stuff. Sometimes befriending nearby sun bathers was just an extra set of eyes. Today if someone I didn't know asked me to watch their stuff, I would kindly ask if I could look inside the bags before they left. Don't think that would be unreasonable at all given our circumstances.

[Zenja]

Sounds like a bunch of crap to me,
abandoned my ***

[tyrist]

There are numerous reasons for a search without a warrant and there is no way to determine what occurred based on the original post.

[Librarian]

Nothing here but speculation.

Can't be resolved without actual data, so closed.