Bill Text: NJ S1560 | 2010-2011 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Prohibits searches of motor vehicles by police officers without probable cause.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2010-03-04 - Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Judiciary Committee [S1560 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2010-S1560-Introduced.html
SENATE, No. 1560
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
214th LEGISLATURE
INTRODUCED MARCH 4, 2010
Sponsored by:
Senator SHIRLEY K. TURNER
District 15 (Mercer)
SYNOPSIS
Prohibits searches of motor vehicles by police officers without probable cause.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning motor vehicle searches and supplementing Title 39 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. A State or local law enforcement officer who stops a motor vehicle on a street or highway of this State shall not conduct a search of that motor vehicle unless the officer has probable cause to believe the vehicle contains unlawful property.
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill would require that a law enforcement officer who stops a motor vehicle have "probable cause" to believe that the vehicle contains unlawful property before searching it.
The New Jersey Supreme Court in State v. Carty, 170 N.J.632 (Sup.Ct. 2002) ruled a law enforcement officer may search a motor vehicle if he or she has a "reasonable and articulable suspicion of criminal wrongdoing" and obtains the driver's consent to the search, after informing the operator of the right to refuse. By requiring probable cause for vehicle searches, a higher standard of justification, this bill would eliminate these so-called "consent searches." No longer would a law enforcement officer who reasonably suspects wrongdoing be empowered to search a vehicle if he or she obtains the driver's consent.
The report of the Senate Judiciary Committee in June 2001 regarding racial profiling revealed that State Police consent searches disproportionately involved minority drivers and that the vast majority of these searches yielded no evidence of unlawful activity. It is also questionable whether drivers who are stopped fully understand they have a right to refuse the officer's request for consent to search their vehicles.
Probable cause is defined by Black's Law Dictionary as the existence of circumstances which would lead a reasonably prudent person to believe in the guilt of an arrested party; mere suspicion or belief, unsupported by facts or circumstance, is insufficient.
The provisions of this bill would apply to all State and local law enforcement officers in the State of New Jersey.
