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Criminal Law and Procedure: Comprehensive Overview, Exams of Public Law

A comprehensive overview of various aspects of criminal law and procedure, including the government's power to exercise authority, the use of force, the rights relating to arrests, searches, and seizures, the elements of different crimes such as aggravated murder, reckless homicide, and aggravated vehicular homicide, as well as guidelines for officer conduct and testimony in court. A wide range of topics, including the legal principles and case law governing the use of force, the requirements for lawful arrests and searches, the definitions of various criminal offenses, and the responsibilities of law enforcement officers in emergency situations and court proceedings. The level of detail and the breadth of the topics covered suggest that this document could be a valuable resource for students, researchers, or professionals interested in the field of criminal justice and law enforcement.

Typology: Exams

2024/2025

Available from 10/18/2024

Holygrams
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Explain jurisdiction. ✔✔A government's general power to exercise authority over all person's
and things within it's territory.
-can be exclusive.
-enforcement authority granted to only one law enforcement agency at a particular location or
on a particular subject matter.
-an agency is only one that has the authority to arrest in that area.
- can be concurrent.
-enforcement authority shared by two or more law enforcement agencies at a particular location
or on a particular subject matter.
-an agency shares the authority to act with other agencies.
Describe the difference between statutory law and case law. ✔✔Statutory law- the body of law
derived fro. statutes rather than from constitutions or judicial decisions.
Case law- the law found in the collection of reported cases that form all or part of the body of
law within a given jurisdiction.
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Explain jurisdiction. ✔✔A government's general power to exercise authority over all person's and things within it's territory.

  • can be exclusive.
  • enforcement authority granted to only one law enforcement agency at a particular location or on a particular subject matter.
  • an agency is only one that has the authority to arrest in that area.
  • can be concurrent.
  • enforcement authority shared by two or more law enforcement agencies at a particular location or on a particular subject matter.
  • an agency shares the authority to act with other agencies. Describe the difference between statutory law and case law. ✔✔Statutory law- the body of law derived fro. statutes rather than from constitutions or judicial decisions. Case law- the law found in the collection of reported cases that form all or part of the body of law within a given jurisdiction.

OPOTA LATEST UPDATE 2025 SPO Study guide 2 WITH VERIFIED

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Define force. ✔✔Any violence, compulsion, or constraint physically exerted by any means on or against a person or thing. Define deadly force. ✔✔Any force which carries a substantial risk that it will proximately result in the death of any person. Physical harm to persons. ✔✔Any injury, illness, or other physiological impairment, regardless of it's gravity or duration. Serious physical harm to persons. ✔✔Any mental illness or condition of such gravity as would normally require hospitalization or prolonged psychiatric treatment. Any physical harm that carries a substantial risk of death. Any physical harm that involves some permanent incapacity, whether partial or total, or that involves some temporary, substantial incapacity. Any physical harm that involves some permanent disfigurement or that involves some temporary, serious disfigurement. Any physical harm that involves acute (i.e. severe) pain of such duration as to result in substantial suffering or that involves any degree of prolonged or intractable pain.

Hunch ✔✔Interactions must be consensual. Determine when a person is considered to be seized. ✔✔In view of all of the circumstances surrounding the incident, a reasonable person would believe that the person was not free to leave. The USSC listed examples of circumstances that might indicate seizure even when the person did not attempt to leave the area ✔✔Threatening presence of several officers The display of a weapon by an officer(s) Some physical touching of the person Restricting the subject's freedom of movement The use of language or tone of voice that indicates that compliance with the officer's request might be compelled Manner of questioning Explain when an officer can use the rationale from Terry to detain a person. ✔✔An officer may detain an individual based upon the officer's reasonable, articulable suspicion that criminal activity was being planned or was in the process of being executed.

Describe the considerations an officer should be mindful of when conducting a Terry stop. ✔✔Use the least intrusive means of detention and investigation reasonably available that will achieve the goal. Conduct the business of the stop as quickly as possible so as to not prolong the period of involuntary detention. If, during that detention, additional facts are uncovered that supply the officer with probable cause to arrest, the individual may be arrested. If grounds for arrest are not discovered in a reasonable amount of time, the detainee must be released or the encounter risks becoming a de facto arrest. Describe the requirements that must be established before a Terry pat down/frisk. ✔✔Officers are required to articulate a reasonable belief that the suspect is armed AND the suspect poses a threat to them. Explain the plain feel doctrine. ✔✔While an officer may not search for objects other than weapons on a Terry stop, if the officer physically feels an object that the officer immediately recognizes as contraband, the object may be seized even if the officer knows it is not a weapon. The officer may not seize an object that, unmistakingly, is not a weapon or if determining its identity requires further manipulation.

  • if making an arrest in the home of a third party, a search warrant to search the premises for the person to be arrested.
  • reasonably believe that the person to be arrested is present at the correct address listed on the warrant, and
  • knock and announce their presence. Identify when an officer may make a warrantless, non-consensual entry into a private residence in order to make an arrest. ✔✔Exigent circumstances must exist which demand an immediate response. Considerations an examples of exigent circumstances.
  • the time of day of the offense and/or the arrest
  • the gravity of the underlying offense thought to be in progress (the crime must be serious)
  • there is a risk of danger to the police or to other persons inside or outside the dwelling(i.e. the subject is armed)
  • the need to prevent a subject's escape
  • the need to prevent the imminent destruction of evidence
  • "hot pursuit" of a subject

Explain the concept of hot/fresh pursuit. ✔✔The pursuit, without unreasonable interruption, of a person who is trying to avoid arrest. Describe the basis to legally seize evidence. ✔✔Must be based on probable cause. Probable cause to seize exists if a prudent person would conclude that the object in question is associated with criminal activity. Full search ✔✔Conducted to gather criminal evidence. Must be based on probable cause. Require either a search warrant or a recognized exception to the warrant requirement in order to execute. Limited weapons search (i.e. frisks and protective sweeps) ✔✔Used to disarm the person to protect officers. Authority based on reasonable suspicion that a person lawfully detained is armed and dangerous. Inventories ✔✔An inventory is not necessarily a search under Fourth Amendment standards. It is used to catalog property that police have taken into custody.

  • The USSC has established four factors to assist in determining the difference.
    • proximity of the area to the home.
    • whether the area is within an enclosure surrounding the home.
    • the nature and uses to which the area is put (e.g. whether the area is used for family purposes).
    • the steps taken by the resident to protect the area from view of passersby.
  • No single factor is determinative. Identify the keys in determining whether a consent search is valid. ✔✔-Consent is voluntarily given.
  • The person giving consent has authority to do so and no other person with authority, that is present, has refused.
  • The search is limited to only those places and things that the person expressly or impliedly authorized to be searched.
  • The search is not unduly intrusive.
    • while officers may be thorough in their search, they are not permitted to be destructive.
    • in addition, the length of the search must be consistent with the type and complexity of the search for which permission was granted.

Describe the three broad categories of exigent circumstances. ✔✔-Lives or property are in imminent danger or a serious crime is in progress.

  • Evidence will be destroyed or moved if officers postpone taking action until a search warrant can be obtained.
  • Officers are in hot pursuit of a felon who flees and takes refuge inside. Identify the area an officer may search incident to a lawful arrest. ✔✔The area within the person's immediate control at the arrest location. Identify the factors that will determine the reasonableness of the length of time involved in a motor vehicle detention. ✔✔-The purpose of the stop, AND
  • The time reasonably needed to effectuate those purposes, AND
  • Whether the officers diligently pursued a means of investigation that was likely to confirm or dispel their suspicions quickly, during which time it was necessary to detain the subject. Identify when an officer may conduct a protective search of a motor vehicle for weapons. ✔✔- The officer has lawfully stopped the vehicle AND
  • The officer has reasonable suspicion, based upon specific and articulable facts, to believe that the driver or passenger is dangerous and can gain immediate control of a weapon.
  • Whether the suspect was attempting to evade arrest by flight. Active resistance ✔✔-When a person exhibits resistive movement to avoid physical control or, as a passive resistor, presents a credible threat to an officer (e.g. lying on hands and not responding to commands to make hands visible)
  • Force is only justifiable in the face of active resistance, which is some outward manifestation, either verbal or physical, on the suspect suggesting volition and conscious defiance.
  • If a suspect actively resists arrest, officers do not violate the Fourth Amendment by using an electrical weapon to subdue him/her. Passive resistance ✔✔-When a person exhibits no resistive movement in response to verbal and other direction.
  • It is unreasonable to use significant force on a restrained subject, even if some level of passive resistance is presented.
  • When a suspect refuses to follow officer's orders, but otherwise poses no safety threat, use of significant force is unreasonable.
  • Failing to exit a vehicle, in itself, is passive resistance.
  • Non-compliance, not paired with any signs of verbal hostility or physical resistance.

Describe when handcuffing may be considered unreasonable force. ✔✔-The Fourth Amendment prohibits unduly tight or excessively forceful handcuffing during the course of a seizure.

  • Absent exigent circumstances, an officer choosing to handcuff a peaceable arrestee in a manner likely to cause serious harm.
  • An officer cannot make a cursory examination of a severe, obvious medical injury and, nevertheless, choose to handcuff the arrestee in a manner likely to cause serious harm.
  • In order for an excessive force claim based on unduly tight handcuffing to survive summary judgement, a plaintiff must offer sufficient evidence for a reasonable jury to find that all of the following exist:
    • plaintiff complained that the handcuffs were too tight.
    • the officer ignored those complaints.
    • the plaintiff experienced some physical injury resulting from the handcuffing. Describe when use of a chemical weapon may be considered unreasonable force. ✔✔-Using chemical weapons on an arrestee who has already been subdued and who poses no threat is excessive force (i.e. it is not reasonable to use a chemical weapon on someone after they have quit resisting).
  • Whenever you use a chemical weapon on someone who is already handcuffed, especially in a cruiser, the court is going to take a very hard look at the use of that chemical weapon.
  • Different tactics should be employed against an unarmed, emotionally distraught individual who is resisting arrest or creating a disturbance than would be used against an armed and dangerous criminal who has recently committed a serious offense.
  • It is absolutely unnecessary for an individual to be mentally competent in order to pose a reasonable threat; actual mental state is irrelevant to any determination of reasonableness in the use of deadly force. List circumstances when an officer may use deadly force to achieve a seizure. ✔✔-The USSC determined that the Fourth Amendment permits law enforcement officers to use deadly force to achieve seizures in two general categories:
    • to protect themselves or others from immediate threats of serious physical harm and/or...
    • to prevent escape of a fleeing "dangerous" person. Explain the variables an officer should use to assess the presence of an imminent threat. ✔✔- Likelihood of a weapon being presented.
  • Capability of that weapon.
  • Proximity of the parties at risk relative to the weapons capability (e.g. knife in the hands of someone 50 yards away vs. 10 yards away).
  • Exposure of the officers or others ( e.g. cover, concealment, physical barriers).
  • Subjects actions independent of weapons and the likelihood of injury if those actions continue.

Explain officer liability when responding to emergency calls. ✔✔-Emergency call-a call to duty, including, but not limited to, communications from citizens, police dispatchers, and personal observations by peace officers of inherently dangerous situations that demand an immediate response on the part of a peace officer.

  • An officer who is responding to an emergency call is governed by the sovereign immunity standard.
  • This is a critical concept relative to cruiser involved accidents because if you are on an emergency call at the time you had an on-duty accident, you and the agency you work for would be immune from liability unless you were in a willful and/or wanton manner. Elements of aggravated murder ✔✔-Prior calculation and design
  • Purposely while committing or attempting to commit one of the 11 elements.
  • Purposely killing under 13, police, or detention. Elements of murder. ✔✔-Purposely cause death.
  • Cause death while committing or attempting to commit a F1 or F2.

O.R.C. Chapter 2919 ✔✔Offenses against the family O.R.C. Chapter 2911 ✔✔Robbery, Burglary, Trespass and Safecracking O.R.C. Chapter 2913 ✔✔Theft and Fraud O.R.C. Chapter 2909 ✔✔Arson and Related offenses O.R.C. Chapter 2917 ✔✔Inciting, Riot, and Related offenses O.R.C. Chapter 2921 ✔✔Bribery and Intimidation Define the term sexual conduct. ✔✔Vaginal intercourse between a male and female; anal intercourse, fellatio, and cunnilingus between persons regardless of sex; and without privilege to do so, the insertion, however slight, of any part if the body or instrument, apparatus, or other object into the vaginal or anal opening if another. Penetration, however slight, is sufficient to complete vaginal or anal intercourse.

Define the term sexual contact. ✔✔For the purpose of sexually arousing or gratifying either person, any touching of an erogenous zone of another, including without limitation the: thigh genitals buttock pubic region if the person is female, a breast Define the term sexual activity. ✔✔Sexual conduct, sexual contact, or both. Elements of Aggravated vehicular homicide ✔✔-Driving while impaired or under the influence (OVI).

  • Recklessly cause death while in a motor vehicle.
  • Reckless operation offence in a construction zone. Elements of vehicular homicide. ✔✔-Negligently cause death while in a motor vehicle.
  • Negligently cause death while speeding in a construction zone.