Question

In your own words, discuss The Fourth Amendment. How are new areas of technology impacted by the Fourth Amendment? Should police have access to privacy records?

You must post a minimum of three times. Your initial post will be your 2 to 3 paragraph response to the discussion question.  

Note: Each paragraph should contain 4-5 complete sentences and have no grammar/spelling errors

Answer 1

The Fourth Amendment was introduced in congress in 1789 by James Madison. Congress submitted the amendment to the states. On March 1, 1792 , the fourth amendment officially became the part of the constitution. The fourth Amendment of U.S. constitution protects privacy of the citizen. This amendment is about the unreasonable searches and seizures of citizen’s property by the government. It also protects citizens against the arbitrary arrests and is the basis of the law regarding search warrants , frisking and other types surveillance. However, this law is not the guarantee against all searches and seizures but only those that are deemed unreasonable under the law. Police officer may not search or seize an individual or his or her property unless the officer has:

1. A valid search warrant;

2. A valid arrest warrants ; or

3. A belief rising to the level of “ probable cause” that an individual has committed a crime.

The new technology impact on The Fourth Amendment.

First of all , whether the activity being observed by the technology is outside or inside a person’s house. The court said, for example, for tracking people outside their home by the GPS is not under the Fourth Amendment. The reason behind this is that people do not have much expectation of privacy if they are doing things in public. People’s cellular signals can also be traced via their phone if he or she using it outside his or her homes.Technological developments are increasingly important to criminal investigation. But the technological progress has its dark side, the most obvious social cost associated with the use of new technologies in law enforcement is the loss of personal privacy that results from the increased ability of police agencies to spy on private conduct. In 1967, the Supreme Court changed its approach to evaluating searches and seizures. In karte vs United States the court brought electric surveillance under constitutional control.