MPTC CONSTITUTIONAL LAW FINAL EXAM ACTUAL
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS GRADED A+
✔✔Extraterritorial stops - ✔✔Ordinarily a police officer may only stop a motor vehicle in
the city or town where he works. A notable exception to this rule is fresh pursuit. If a
police officer witnesses a crime in his own city and begins pursuing the suspect in his
own city, he can follow the suspect into another town in order to seize the suspect.
✔✔Mutual aid agreement - ✔✔Allows municipalities to enter an agreement with one or
multiple municipalities throughout Massachusetts
✔✔Transferred authority - ✔✔Police ask another officer of another municipality for
assistance
✔✔Fresh and continued pursuit - ✔✔Applies when officers observe a driver commit a
crime or infraction that is arrestable. That crime or infraction needs to be initially
committed in the officers presences and in his or hers jurisdiction
✔✔Citizens arrst - ✔✔Any citizen has the right to arrest someone who has committed a
felony as long as they have probable cause.
✔✔Police search and seizures action include - ✔✔Frisk
Arrests
Using force
Seizing property
Investigation stops
Search for evidence and people
✔✔Seizures - ✔✔When the police take possession of property, make an arrest, or
restrict a person ability to move freely
✔✔Reasonable suspicion - ✔✔Specific and articulable facts which when taken together
would convince a person of reasonable caution to believe that a person has committed,
or is about to committed a crime
✔✔probable cause - ✔✔Is trustworthy facts and circumstances sufficient to convince a
person of reasonable caution to believe that
In the case of arrest: a crime has been comitted and the person arrested has committed
it and
In the case of arrest: a specific item subject to seizures will be found.
✔✔Exclusionary rule - ✔✔Makes any evidence obtained by police in unreasonable
search or seizure inadmissible in court.
, Commonly referred to as the "fruit of the poisonous tree" doctrine, the purpose of the
exclusionary rule is to deter police officers from
conducting searches and seizures in violation of the 4th Amendment and to provide a
remedy for defendants whose rights have been infringed.
✔✔Fruits of poisonous tree - ✔✔evidence obtained illegally
✔✔Voluntary encounters ( non-seizures) - ✔✔As a police officer you can have a
conversation with anyone, if they refuse to talk there is nothing that you can do
✔✔Best police practices for voluntary encounters - ✔✔Communicate to the citizens that
they are
Not under arrest, Free to leave at any timeAnd Do not have to answer questions
Avoid using language like:
Stop
Come over here
I need you to stay here
Do not touch or make physical contact
Do not confine or otherwise restrict person's ability to move freely
✔✔Investigative stops - ✔✔Short duration of a warrantless seizures used to determine if
probable cause exist specifically if a crime has been committed
✔✔Investigators stop limitation duration - ✔✔No specific time of length of time, however
court has ruled the stop must not be longer that what is reasonably necessary to
determine if probable cause exists
✔✔Scope limitations for an investigative stop. - ✔✔Limited to gathering information to
determine probable cause for specific crime committed by a specific suspect
✔✔Location - ✔✔During investigation stop police should not move suspect against their
will from one location to another absent strong justification ( safety)
✔✔Questioning - ✔✔Police are not required to administer Miranda warnings during
investigation stops suspects are not required to answer questions.
✔✔Anonymous tip - ✔✔Can provide police with reasonable suspicion to stop a motor
vehicle so long as the tip provides specific details that are consistent with an
eyewitnesses account and those details are further corroborated by police
✔✔Best practice for investigative stops - ✔✔Time of day
Officers training and experience.
Officers corroboration of facts provided.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS GRADED A+
✔✔Extraterritorial stops - ✔✔Ordinarily a police officer may only stop a motor vehicle in
the city or town where he works. A notable exception to this rule is fresh pursuit. If a
police officer witnesses a crime in his own city and begins pursuing the suspect in his
own city, he can follow the suspect into another town in order to seize the suspect.
✔✔Mutual aid agreement - ✔✔Allows municipalities to enter an agreement with one or
multiple municipalities throughout Massachusetts
✔✔Transferred authority - ✔✔Police ask another officer of another municipality for
assistance
✔✔Fresh and continued pursuit - ✔✔Applies when officers observe a driver commit a
crime or infraction that is arrestable. That crime or infraction needs to be initially
committed in the officers presences and in his or hers jurisdiction
✔✔Citizens arrst - ✔✔Any citizen has the right to arrest someone who has committed a
felony as long as they have probable cause.
✔✔Police search and seizures action include - ✔✔Frisk
Arrests
Using force
Seizing property
Investigation stops
Search for evidence and people
✔✔Seizures - ✔✔When the police take possession of property, make an arrest, or
restrict a person ability to move freely
✔✔Reasonable suspicion - ✔✔Specific and articulable facts which when taken together
would convince a person of reasonable caution to believe that a person has committed,
or is about to committed a crime
✔✔probable cause - ✔✔Is trustworthy facts and circumstances sufficient to convince a
person of reasonable caution to believe that
In the case of arrest: a crime has been comitted and the person arrested has committed
it and
In the case of arrest: a specific item subject to seizures will be found.
✔✔Exclusionary rule - ✔✔Makes any evidence obtained by police in unreasonable
search or seizure inadmissible in court.
, Commonly referred to as the "fruit of the poisonous tree" doctrine, the purpose of the
exclusionary rule is to deter police officers from
conducting searches and seizures in violation of the 4th Amendment and to provide a
remedy for defendants whose rights have been infringed.
✔✔Fruits of poisonous tree - ✔✔evidence obtained illegally
✔✔Voluntary encounters ( non-seizures) - ✔✔As a police officer you can have a
conversation with anyone, if they refuse to talk there is nothing that you can do
✔✔Best police practices for voluntary encounters - ✔✔Communicate to the citizens that
they are
Not under arrest, Free to leave at any timeAnd Do not have to answer questions
Avoid using language like:
Stop
Come over here
I need you to stay here
Do not touch or make physical contact
Do not confine or otherwise restrict person's ability to move freely
✔✔Investigative stops - ✔✔Short duration of a warrantless seizures used to determine if
probable cause exist specifically if a crime has been committed
✔✔Investigators stop limitation duration - ✔✔No specific time of length of time, however
court has ruled the stop must not be longer that what is reasonably necessary to
determine if probable cause exists
✔✔Scope limitations for an investigative stop. - ✔✔Limited to gathering information to
determine probable cause for specific crime committed by a specific suspect
✔✔Location - ✔✔During investigation stop police should not move suspect against their
will from one location to another absent strong justification ( safety)
✔✔Questioning - ✔✔Police are not required to administer Miranda warnings during
investigation stops suspects are not required to answer questions.
✔✔Anonymous tip - ✔✔Can provide police with reasonable suspicion to stop a motor
vehicle so long as the tip provides specific details that are consistent with an
eyewitnesses account and those details are further corroborated by police
✔✔Best practice for investigative stops - ✔✔Time of day
Officers training and experience.
Officers corroboration of facts provided.
