2020 Lesson 12: Legal Update

This is an online, Missouri-specific legal studies course. The lesson addresses recent court decisions providing guidance to law enforcement officers regarding: 

• When an officer may stop a car that is registered to someone who does not have a valid driver’s license. 

• What circumstances will provide reasonable suspicion that justifies a traffic stop. 

• When officers are interrogating a suspect in custody, what comments by the suspect amount to a request to have a lawyer present during questioning. 

• What types of behaviors by officers will violate a suspect’s right to have an attorney present during custodial interrogation. 

• When officers may conduct more than one pat-down search on a subject. 

• When may an officer enter a home under the community caretaking exception to the warrant requirement. 

• When may an officer search that home under the exigent circumstances exception to the warrant requirement. 

• When will officers who restrain a person in a prone position be entitled to qualified immunity from a lawsuit alleging excessive force.