Quote:
Originally Posted by Azure
Suspicion is not proper grounds upon which to conduct a search?
The witness/s were their own two eyes...and the belief that the person was doing something suspicious.
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The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms severly limited police powers upon its introduction. Generally, police can only conduct a warrantless search incident to arrest. Further, this search in can only be conducted for 3 main purposes: to gather evidence, safety reasons or some sort of object that could facilitate and escape. One of these 3 reasons must be in mind when an officer conducts the search. Simply stating that you conducted a search because it is police policy or it is a matter of routine is not good enough. The scope of the search is also limited to persons, and objects nearby including a vehicle. However the scope of that search is also limited to and determined by the events themselves.
Keep in mind that an arrest can only be made based on reasonable grounds that the particular individual commited an offense. Reasonable grounds are based on a combination of subjective and object grounds (physical evidence) determined by an officer during an investigation.
Mere suspicion certainly can give an officer powers to detain (a relatively recent development in Canadian law) but NOT powers to search beyond a mere 'pat down' for officer safety reasons. Justify the uncovering of evidence during an investgative detention search is, at present, an issue still under consideration.