Michigan Illegal Search Lawyer

The police are a vital part of any municipality or community, but sometimes their efforts attract some people that are not the best suited for that type of job. Personal conflicts, prejudices, or past experiences might taint or influence the way an officer may view their job obligations. We are all familiar with police brutality in its many forms, most likely from the videotapes that make it on the news, but there is another side to police misconduct that rarely gets any attention at all. Illegal police search and seizure go on, in violation of citizens’ civil rights, all the time. Like most other police misconduct cases, many minorities bear the brunt of such misconduct.

Findings from a government survey conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics are provided from a national representative of nearly 90,000 residents age 16 or older. The report provides demographic characteristics of citizens and police officers involved in traffic stops and use of force encounters.

• An estimated 20% of such incidents involved only the threat to use force.
• Approximately 422,000 people 16 years old and older were estimated to have had contact with the police in which force or the threat of force was used.
• Among blacks and Hispanics, 2% reported force or threatened force, compared to less than 1% among whites.
• An estimated 10% of all licensed drivers, including almost 20% of teenage drivers, were pulled over by law enforcement officers.
• In 7% of the stops, the driver or vehicle was searched. Black and Hispanic motorists (11% each) were more likely than whites (5%) to be physically searched or have their vehicles searched. In almost 90% of such searches, the police found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing.

This study suggests that even though it is a small percentage, police misconduct does exist, and it is more prevalent toward minorities. Minorities are almost twice as likely to be stopped and to be searched by the police as white Americans. Don’t let your case become another statistic. Do something about your unlawful/illegal search and bring justice to a problem that seems largely overlooked by local authorities.