Major Change in Search Incident to Arrest Law

Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court decided in Arizona v. Gant that police cannot automatically search for evidence in a vehicle following the arrest of an occupant. Such a search is permissible only where it is reasonable to believe (1) the occupant could access the vehicle at the time of the search, or (2) the vehicle contains evidence of the offense of arrest. In Gant, the driver was arrested for driving on a suspended license and was handcuffed and placed in a police vehicle. Therefore, he did not have access to the vehicle The offciers could not reasonably believe they would locate evidence related to the suspendedlicense charge in the vehicle. So the search was unreasnable.

The Gant decision dramatically changes the New York v. Belton rule, announced in 1981 and highly criticezed since that time. Belton essentially permitted officers to search a vehicle each time an occupant was arrested. No more.

In N.J., the Supreme Court has long departed from Belton and granted greater protections under the N.J. Constitution. In State v. Eckel, the Court held that, without access to the vehicle, there can be no search incident to arrest of the vehicle.