Search and Seizure — Strip searches

Listen to this article

Search and Seizure — Strip searches

A strip search during booking at a jail did not violate the Fourth Amendment.

“Here, the strip search was amply justified. First, Freeman was arrested for attempted drug distribution, which is exactly the type of crime that raises reasonable suspicion of concealed contraband. See Mary Beth G., 723 F.3d at 1273; Bull v. City & County of San Francisco, 595 F.3d 964, 988-89 (9th Cir. 2010) (en banc) (Graber, J., concurring) (‘[S]ome categories of retrial detainees (such as those with a criminal record and those arrested for violent offenses and drug offenses) do pose a significant risk of bringing contraband into the jail.’).

The officers knew of Freeman’s habit of hiding drugs between his buttocks, and when they failed to find drugs at the scene of the traffic stop, it was completely reasonable to think that he might be concealing drugs in this way. Finally, there was Freeman’s telltale uncomfortable fidgeting while seated at the police station.

This evidence gave the officers particularized grounds for suspecting that Freeman might be hiding drugs or contraband and that a strip search was warranted. Cf. Kraushaar, 45 F.3d at 1045-46 (finding reasonable suspicion based on a detainee’s furtive hand movements suggesting he was trying to hide something in his pants).”

Affirmed.

11-2658 U.S. v. Freeman

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois, Mills, J., Sykes, J

Full Text