The Constitution and Policing
How the United States Constitution shapes everyday police work, for a two-year associate degree in criminal justice: the rule of law, the Bill of Rights and incorporation through the Fourteenth Amendment, the state action doctrine, balancing and remedies including suppression and civil suits; due process and fair identification procedures, Brady disclosure, voluntariness and entrapment; the Fourth Amendment and the reasonable expectation of privacy from Katz and Jones to warrants and their exceptions, including Case v. Montana; phones, data and surveillance technology under Riley, Carpenter and Kyllo; consensual encounters, Terry stops and arrests, including Mendenhall, Wardlow and Rodriguez; Miranda, Edwards and Berghuis v. Thompkins; self-incrimination and confessions; speedy trial, confrontation and bail under the Sixth and Eighth Amendments and Ohio law; equal protection, free speech and assembly, including racial profiling, recording police and protest policing; and the exclusionary rule from Mapp v. Ohio and Wong Sun to its good faith, inevitable discovery and attenuation exceptions. The course follows the fictional Port Ardent police service and a cohort of students, and ends with a constitutional review of a complete case file and a casebook of leading decisions, with runnable Python examples throughout.
LES-111 Year 1 3 credits 12 lessons · 3 h 53 min ▶ Video lessons coming soon
Offered by HSM University · Law Enforcement Studies
This is the American version of this course. See the Canadian version.
What you'll learn
- Explain the rule of law and the place of the Constitution and Bill of Rights in American law, and identify the amendments police meet most often.
- Determine when constitutional rights apply under the state action doctrine, how courts balance rights against government interests, and what remedies follow a violation.
- Apply due process to identification procedures, disclosure of favorable evidence, voluntariness of statements and undercover operations.
- Decide whether police conduct is a search under the Fourth Amendment and whether it satisfies the warrant requirement or a recognized exception.
- Apply constitutional privacy rules to phones, computers, data held by third parties and surveillance technology, and keep digital searches within their authorization.
- Distinguish consensual encounters, investigative stops and arrests, and apply the suspicion or probable cause each requires.
- Give Miranda warnings when required and honor invocations of the rights to counsel and silence.
- Explain the protection against self-incrimination and the law of confessions, recognize the risk factors for false confessions and use information-gathering interview practices.
- Describe how police work affects speedy trial, confrontation, bail and custody rights under the Sixth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.
- Apply equal protection and First Amendment rights to stops, recording by the public and protest policing.
- Analyze whether evidence would be suppressed under the exclusionary rule and its exceptions.
- Conduct a constitutional review of a complete police file, using leading decisions to assess each step and recommend improvements.
Course content
12 lessons · 3 h 53 min total · final exam
- 1 Constitutional rights and policing: the Constitution and the rule of law 21 min · quiz
- 2 How constitutional rights work: state action, incorporation and remedies 20 min · quiz
- 3 Due process of law: the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments 20 min · quiz
- 4 Search and seizure: the Fourth Amendment and the reasonable expectation of privacy 19 min · quiz
- 5 Privacy in the digital age: phones, data and new technology 20 min · quiz
- 6 Seizures of persons: stops, detentions and arrests 19 min · quiz
- 7 The right to counsel and Miranda warnings 19 min · quiz
- 8 Self-incrimination and confessions 19 min · quiz
- 9 Trial rights and police duties: the Sixth and Eighth Amendments 19 min · quiz
- 10 Equal protection, speech and assembly: the First and Fourteenth Amendments 19 min · quiz
- 11 The exclusionary rule and its exceptions 19 min · quiz
- 12 Capstone: leading decisions and a constitutional review of a Port Ardent case file 19 min · quiz
- E Final exam 20 questions
Requirements
Recommended background. You can start any course at any time.
Description
How the United States Constitution shapes everyday police work, for a two-year associate degree in criminal justice: the rule of law, the Bill of Rights and incorporation through the Fourteenth Amendment, the state action doctrine, balancing and remedies including suppression and civil suits; due process and fair identification procedures, Brady disclosure, voluntariness and entrapment; the Fourth Amendment and the reasonable expectation of privacy from Katz and Jones to warrants and their exceptions, including Case v. Montana; phones, data and surveillance technology under Riley, Carpenter and Kyllo; consensual encounters, Terry stops and arrests, including Mendenhall, Wardlow and Rodriguez; Miranda, Edwards and Berghuis v. Thompkins; self-incrimination and confessions; speedy trial, confrontation and bail under the Sixth and Eighth Amendments and Ohio law; equal protection, free speech and assembly, including racial profiling, recording police and protest policing; and the exclusionary rule from Mapp v. Ohio and Wong Sun to its good faith, inevitable discovery and attenuation exceptions. The course follows the fictional Port Ardent police service and a cohort of students, and ends with a constitutional review of a complete case file and a casebook of leading decisions, with runnable Python examples throughout.
Part of the Law stream, typically taken in year 1.