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Warrantless Search in the Law Enforcement Workplace: Court Interpretation of Employer Practices and Employee Privacy Rights Under the Ortega Doctrine

NCJ Number
176337
Journal
Police Quarterly Volume: 1 Issue: 2 Dated: 1998 Pages: 51-69
Author(s)
W P Bloss
Date Published
1998
Length
19 pages
Annotation
This paper uses Federal and State case law to analyze lower-court interpretation of the application of the legal doctrine stated by the United States Supreme Court in the 1987 decision in O'Connor v. Ortega regarding employer warrantless search in the law enforcement workplace.
Abstract
The analysis focuses on lower court doctrine and allowable warrantless search practices by police employers. The analysis concludes have relied on a balancing-of-competing-interests test between government and individual privacy to determine employer warrantless noncriminal searches to be permissible due to a diminished employee expectation of privacy in the public workplace. further, in supplanting traditional Fourth Amendment warrant and probable-cause requirements with a reasonableness standard, the courts have expanded the search authority of law enforcement employers to include areas such as employee offices, desks, briefcases, lockers, and government-issued vehicles. Table, notes, list of case citations, and 15 references (Author abstract modified)

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