Hey guys welcome back to the Street Cop podcast my name is Dan Foster. I am your

search and seizure instructor with Street Cop training. I'm going to jump into the

mailbag today and I want to go over an answer to a question that comes up rather frequently. You trying to be a

up be a street cop.

Going through my inbox, my email, past few days,

I've had a number of officers from different states reach out with the question of whether or not a canine alert. of

the officers from different states reach out with the question of whether or not a canine alert on a vehicle

gives police the ability to search occupants of that vehicle.

So coming from a state where you have the motor vehicle exception to the warrant requirement a

canine alerts on that vehicle you have probable cause to search that

vehicle you can search that vehicle without a warrant but is a person in that vehicle treated like a container.

In other words, United States v Ross, California v. Acevedo,

a Wyoming v. Houghton, among others,

address the police ability to search containers within a vehicle

whenever they have probable cause to search the vehicle itself.

Is a person treated like a container? Do we have the authority? Do we have the ability to

search a person who was an occupant of a vehicle when we have probable cause to

search that vehicle? Whether that probable cause be based on a canine alert or any other way that we've achieved

probable cause to search that vehicle. Well, first problem is a person is not a container.

A person is enumerated under the Constitution,

persons houses, papers, and effects in the Fourth Amendment.

A vehicle, while it has a reduced expectation of privacy, persons have a heightened constitutional

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