Join us Wednesday, May 23, 2018, 2:00PM ET, at our next event in the 2018 NACOLE Webinar Series.

Police work requires finding a balance between performing a public safety function and protecting individual rights. Although the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution lays some of the groundwork for actions officers can take while still maintaining this balance, they are further guided by various legal principles and operating procedures. The investigations that result from allegations that relate to search and seizure rules are detailed and complex, and often hinge upon the totality of the circumstances to determine if any actions resulted in misconduct. As a result, there are many challenges to investigating search and seizure allegations, especially when those investigations are made by civilians with a view toward analyzing alleged misconduct. 

Although this presentation presupposes a basic familiarity with search and seizure law, the first part will give a brief overview of the Fourth Amendment, and the guiding legal principles that need to be utilized to perform the legal research necessary to determine the dispositions of allegations.

The webinar will also discuss ways to conduct a detailed investigation. There will be a discussion of how to gather evidence and weigh the information collected, while separating facts from speculation and subjectivity. There will also be a detailed discussion of how to conduct comprehensive interviews, including the importance of basis of knowledge, asking open-ended questions, terms to avoid, confronting subjective explanations of innocuous behavior, and gathering the justification for each action.

The lecture will conclude with discussing how to analyze the facts that have been gathered in the context of the rules. Ultimately, attendees will walk away with a better understanding of the detailed nature of search and seizure investigations, and the importance of careful legal research to analyze the justification of the actions taken by law enforcement.

Jennifer Jarrett

Jennifer Jarett, the Deputy Director of Training for Investigations at the Civilian Complaint Review Board, has been with the agency for eleven years. Jennifer began her tenure as an investigator and spent several years supervising dozens of investigators. Jennifer currently leads the New Investigator Training course and creates and leads continued and advanced trainings for the investigative staff. She was a co-presenter of the “Evaluating Use of Force” lecture at the 2017 NACOLE Annual Conference, and is currently a member of the NACOLE Training, Education, & Standards Committee. Jennifer is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.