A search occurs when an expectation of privacy that society considers reasonable is infringed by a governmental employee or by an agent of the government. Private individuals who are not acting in either capacity are exempt from the Fourth Amendment prohibitions. A seizure refers to the interference with an individual 's possessory interest in property. To meet the definition of an unreasonable seizure, the property 's owner must have had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the items seized. A person is seized when law enforcement personnel use physical force to restrain the person if a reasonable person in the same or a similar situation would not feel free to leave the situation. The previous owner of abandoned property cannot allege an unreasonable seizure of that abandoned property. Abandoned property is property left behind by its owner in a manner in which the owner abandons the possessory interest in the property and no longer retains a reasonable expectation of privacy with regard to the search (Law School, 2013).
To sue regarding an alleged Fourth Amendment violation, the plaintiff must have standing. Standing with respect to Fourth Amendment violations requires that the plaintiff have had a legitimate expectation of privacy at the searched location. A legitimate expectation of privacy must meet both the subjective and objective tests of reasonableness. The subjective test requires that the plaintiff actually and genuinely expected privacy, and the objective test requires that given the circumstances, a reasonable person in the same or a similar situation would have expected privacy as well. Reasonable suspicion is what they need to detain you. Probable cause is what they need to search. Slightly different burdens and a slightly different analysis (Law School, 2013).
I honestly believe that the officer was on legal grounds to search anywhere in the vehicle because he was given the consent to search by
References: Law School. (2013). fourth amendment: an overview. Retrieved from http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/fourth_amendment