Constitutional Training for Law Enforcement

Fourth Amendment - Search and Seizure

• The Fourth Amendment to the United States' Constitution protects citizens against unreasonable searches and seizures. Police officers are taught that only under certain circumstances may they stop and search a person or his home or car without first getting a warrant. A police officer learns that she must swear to tell the truth about her evidence before a judge and establish probable cause before a court will issue a warrant. Failure to follow the Constitution can result in the application of the exclusionary rule. The "exclusionary rule" refers to a collection of rules created by the courts through case law to prevent unconstitutionally obtained evidence from being used against a defendant in court.
  
  

Fifth Amendment - Right to Remain Silent

• The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution covers more than just a person's right to remain silent, but it is that portion of the Fifth Amendment that creates the part of the Miranda warning that says "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say, can and will be used against you in a court of law." The Miranda warning itself comes from the court case Miranda v. Arizona, in which officers did inform the defendant of his rights and the United States Supreme Court held that for Constitutional rights to have meaning, citizens must be aware of those rights.
  
  

Sixth Amendment - Right to an Attorney

• The Sixth Amendment to the Constitution is also referenced in the Miranda Warning where it says, "You have the right to an attorney, if you can not afford an attorney, an attorney will be appointed to represent you." Police officers are taught that if a person requests a lawyer and the officer does not provide an opportunity for her to speak to a lawyer, everything else the officer learns from speaking to the defendant will probably be excluded at trial. Police officers are also taught that the speedy and public trial rights guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment mean that the public will have an opportunity to see and hear how the officer conducts herself. In the Anchorage Police Department police training handout "50 Tricks of Defense Attorneys" officers learn that defense attorneys take advantage of police officers who push the bounds of Constitutional behavior to make the officer appear in an unfavorable light in front of the jury, thus damaging his credibility.
  
  

Due Process

• The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution set forth the requirements that all suspects have the right to due process of law. This Constitutional right protects citizens from having a law enforcement officer who witnesses an act she believes to be criminal from doling out immediate punishment. Even if a law enforcement officer witnesses the commission of a crime, the perpetrator is still entitled to all of his due process rights. The suspect can request to an attorney, refuse to speak to an officer and even have a trial despite the fact than an officer personally witnessed the entire event. It also means that police officers are bound by the judge's rulings on what they can and can not say in court since the exclusionary rules may prevent some evidence from being presented to the jury even if a police officer knows it to be true.
  
  

Equal Protection

• The Fourteenth Amendment grants all people equal protection under state law, and as pointed out by Cornell University Law School, the Fifth Amendment establishes due process rights under federal law. The equal protection clause prohibits law enforcement discrimination based on a person's race, gender, religion or other membership in some other identifiable class. A police officer may know that an alleged victim in a crime has a long criminal history, but he still has to treat that person with dignity, and investigate the crime the same as if the victim were an upstanding citizen of impeccable character.