Police Encounters
Your constitutional rights during police stops, searches, arrests, and interactions with law enforcement.
Covered in this guide:
Your rights with police live in the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments. Police generally need a warrant to search your home, and Riley v. California (2014) requires one for cellphones. Miranda warnings only apply during custodial interrogation — and after Berghuis v. Thompkins, you must affirmatively invoke silence. Say: "I am invoking my right to remain silent. I want a lawyer." Gideon guarantees a lawyer in felony cases. If your rights get violated, 42 U.S.C. § 1983 lets you sue state officers in federal court.
Key Federal Laws
First Amendment
U.S. Constitution
Free speech, assembly, protest rights
Fourth Amendment
U.S. Constitution
Search, seizure, and arrest protections
Fifth Amendment
U.S. Constitution
Right against self-incrimination, Miranda rights
Sixth Amendment
U.S. Constitution
Right to counsel in criminal cases
Section 1983
42 U.S.C. § 1983
Civil suits against state officials
Fourteenth Amendment
U.S. Constitution
Due process, equal protection
Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents
403 U.S. 388 (1971)
Suits against federal officials
Miranda Rights
The Miranda warning is one of the most-recited pieces of American legal language and one of the most misunderstood. The Supreme Court created it in Miranda v. Arizona in 1966, after Ernesto Miranda co...
Search and Seizure
The Fourth Amendment is the original American privacy law — written in 1791, in direct response to the British general warrants that let colonial officers ransack any house they liked. The text guaran...
Recording Police
The right to record police officers in public is a First Amendment right, and it's the rare constitutional principle that arrived almost entirely through citizen journalism. Federal appeals courts hav...
Excessive Force
Police are allowed to use reasonable force to make an arrest, protect themselves, or protect others. They are not allowed to use more force than the situation calls for. The legal standard was set in...
False Arrest
Police can't arrest you without probable cause — a fact-based reasonable belief that you've committed a crime. An arrest without it is a false arrest and a Fourth Amendment violation. The standard is...
DUI/DWI Rights
DUI law is the area where regular constitutional protections collide hardest with the state's interest in keeping drunk drivers off the road. You still have the right to remain silent, the right to an...
Protest and Assembly Rights
The First Amendment is the foundation: "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble." Two and a half centuries of...
Juvenile Rights
Until 1967, kids in juvenile court basically had no due process rights. The system was supposed to be "protective," so the rules of adult criminal procedure didn't apply — until the Supreme Court revi...