§ 15.02 Arrest Inventories

• Jurisdiction: North Carolina

§ 15.02 Arrest Inventories²⁷

In Illinois v. Lafayette,²⁸ the Supreme Court held that the police may search an arrested person, as well as her personal effects, including containers, as part of a routine²⁹inventory at a police station, incident to her booking and jailing. Neither a search warrant nor probable cause is required for an arrest inventory.³⁰

The Court's reasoning in Lafayette in support of arrest inventories parallels that pertaining to automobile inventories. The Court stated that an inventory is reasonable to prevent theft of the arrestee's property by inmates and jail employees, to protect the police from theft claims, and to prevent the arrestee from carrying dangerous instrumentalities or contraband into the jail.

In practice, the scope of an arrest inventory is broader than a search incident to an arrest. A search that would be impractical or embarrassing at the scene of the arrest can be conducted at the stationhouse. For example, as part of an arrest inventory, authorities are entitled not only to search the arrestee's clothing, but also to take the clothing and keep it in official custody.³¹ The Court in Lafayette also left open the question of "the circumstances in which a strip search may or may not be appropriate" as part of the inventory process.

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Notes:

^[27] See generally 3 LaFave, Note 1, supra, at § 5.3(a).

^[28] 462 U.S. 640 (1983); contra under the state constitution, Reeves v. State, 599 P.2d 727 (Alaska 1979) (a warrantless arrest inventory may not be more intrusive than is absolutely necessary to prevent entry of weapons, drugs, or contraband inside the jail; therefore, any object taken from the arrestee's possession may not be further searched or opened, except pursuant to a warrant or valid warrant exception); State v. Perham, 814 P.2d 914 (Haw. 1991) (the police may not search the contents of an arrestee's wallet as part of an arrest inventory, in the absence of evidence that such an exploratory search was the least intrusive means of accomplishing the purposes of safeguarding the property and of protecting the police against fraudulent claims).

^[29] Regarding the requirement that inventories be routine, see § 15.01[B][2], supra.

^[30] Relying on a different justification from the...