Monthly Archives: June 2024
DUI Reasonable Suspicion: Parts One and Two
In most cases, police officers must have reasonable suspicion, which is basically an evidence-based hunch of criminal activity, to detain people and investigate crimes. DUI roadblocks, which are legal in Florida and most other states, are the primary exception to this rule. At checkpoints, officers may detain motorists according to a preset formula, whether… Read More »
Tampa’s Top Law Enforcement Officer Promises Violent Crime Crackdown
Speaking to the city council, Tampa Police Department Chief Lee Bercaw outlined a multi-point plan which, he says, will reduce the number of shootings in the area and make people feel safer. Police received reports of at least twenty-four shootings in the Tampa Bay area in April and May 2024. In one case, video… Read More »
PIKing Through a Drug Possession Case
Here’s an interesting set of statistics, or at least interesting to us. Drug possession accounts for 85 percent of drug arrests, yet just over 25 percent of the nation’s jail and prison population. Why the large disparity? Why do so many cases result in so few prison sentences? The number of moving parts in… Read More »
Breaking Down a Refusal to Submit Case in Florida
Since 1990, police and prosecutors have received new weapons in the ongoing fight against DUI. Refusal-to-submit laws, which were implicitly legalized by the Supreme Court in 2016’s Birchfield vs. South Dakota, are one of the latest weapons. States that have passed these laws, such as Florida, hope they’ll increase the number of defendants who… Read More »
