Police Law in a Nutshell
By Brian MacMaster
Welcome to Police Law in a Nutshell with Brian MacMaster!
Published here once a month, Brian breaks down complex and evolving topics in a straightforward, usable way for law enforcement professionals. Subjects range from qualified immunity and new Maine statutes to vehicle stops, searches, and the broader legal landscape officers face in the field.
The goal of this blog is simple: to provide timely, relevant, and practical information that helps officers stay informed, make sound decisions, and confidently navigate the challenges of modern policing.
Police Law in a Nutshell: Home Searches (Part 3) – Warrant Searches
There are only three lawful ways to enter a home: with consent, exigent circumstances, or with a warrant. This installment of Police Law in a Nutshell offers a brief explanation of warrant searches. Previous installments covered consent and exigent circumstances...
Police Law in a Nutshell: Home Searches (Part 2) – Exigent Circumstances
There are only three lawful ways to enter a home: consent, exigent circumstances, or a warrant. This installment of Police Law in a Nutshell will briefly explain exigent circumstances. A previous installment covered consent searches, and a future post will discuss...
Police Law in a Nutshell: Home Searches (Part 1) – Consent
There are only three ways to lawfully search a home: Consent, Exigency, or Warrant. This installment of Police Law in a Nutshell will briefly explain Consent, while future posts will cover Exigency and Warrant separately. Home Searches 1 - Consent Consent must be...
Police Law in a Nutshell: Asserting Right to Silence or Right to an Attorney
Officers know when to advise suspects of their Miranda rights, but are sometimes unsure what actions to take if a suspect invokes the right to silence or the right to an attorney. Let’s try to grasp it all in a nutshell. First of all, just a quick refresher that...
Police Law in a Nutshell: Warrantless Searches of Vehicles
Before discussing situations where the law allows a warrantless vehicle search, we must keep in mind the Search Warrant Rule: any search conducted without a warrant is presumptively unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment. To overcome this presumption, the prosecution...
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