Police Searches of Impounded Cars

Police officers can impound your car for a variety of reasons. If you're arrested for a traffic violation, like a DUI, and no one else is present and able to drive your car, police will typically impound it. Illegally parking or abandoning your vehicle also risks impoundment. And once officers have legally impounded your vehicle, they are entitled to search it.

What Is an Inventory Search?

Police officers can search an impounded vehicle to conduct an "inventory search." These inventory searches fall under a police officer's administrative and caretaking duties, which are designed to protect the owner's property and protect police against stolen or damaged property claims. Following standard procedures, police must inventory (catalog) all potentially valuable contents in the impounded vehicle. Police can also open containers.

Do Inventory Searches Require a Warrant?

An inventory search doesn't require a warrant or probable cause, because it isn't supposed to be a search for evidence of a crime. Courts have upheld inventory searches on the theory that the police should be able to search the car to safeguard the property and its contents. This procedure benefits both the owner and the police. Officers can prove what was and was not in the vehicle when they took control of it by creating an inventory.

Another reason courts have allowed inventory searches is police protection: Officers should be free to search for anything in the car that could endanger them, such as weapons or explosives.

What Is the Permitted Scope of Inventory Searches?

How thoroughly can the police search an impounded car? It depends on the jurisdiction. In some states, police officers can search every nook and cranny of the car, while in others a brief sweep for items is all that's permitted. In almost all states, officers can take inventory of any object in plain view—that is, any object readily apparent to the naked eye—and open containers.

The police agency should have or follow a standard procedure for inventory searches. These procedures help ensure searches are carried out consistently, reasonably, properly, and legally. If an officer goes beyond standard procedure while conducting the inventory search, the aggrieved owner could argue the search was unlawful. (Just because the agency has written procedures doesn't make those procedures legal, but it could provide evidence of whether the agency is acting in line with police caretaking functions and safety precautions.)

How to Challenge or Fight an Inventory Search

If the police impound your car and find evidence of a crime in it, you might want to contest the legality of the search. If you win, the evidence won't be admissible in court. But, winning this argument can be tough. You must prove that the officers acted unreasonably or in bad faith, such as by purposely breaking the law to impound or search your vehicle. Honest mistakes by officers aren't enough to win an illegal inventory search argument.

The following are situations in which courts have found inventory searches illegal:

• the car wasn't legally impounded in the first place
• the impoundment was unnecessary because the vehicle could have remained where it was or someone else was available to take custody of it
• the scope of the search exceeded the justification of preventing theft—a brief search of items and locking the car would have been sufficient, or
• it was clear that the only reason for impounding the car and conducting an inventory search was to perform an illegal warrantless search for evidence.

Courts won't generally find an inventory search invalid even if police had some investigatory motive, as long as it wasn't the only purpose.

Getting Legal Advice

If you think police illegally impounded or inventoried your vehicle, talk to a criminal defense attorney. For information on whether and how you can get your car back, check out "What Can I Do When the Police Tow and Impound My Car?"