Discuss the Fourth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution as it relates to the fire service. What is an administrative search warrant? What are the exceptions to a search warrant that are most applicable to the fire service?

Assignment Question

The Fourth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution protects citizens against unreasonable search and seizure. We often think about search and seizure in terms of the police, but there are instances involving search and seizure that is related to the fire service.

1. Discuss the Fourth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution as it relates to the fire service.

2. What is an administrative search warrant?

3. What are the exceptions to a search warrant that are most applicable to the fire service?

4. Research at least one Fourth Amendment court case involving a firefighter or fire department and discuss the specifics and the outcome of that case?

5. Back up your discussion by providing proper attribution to this week’s readings, and/or other suitable sources from your research.

Class, try not to use the same cases in the discussion. Also, try to mix it up by providing cases that went in favor of the plaintiff and against the plaintiff. If you see several cases in the discussion that went in favor of the plaintiff then you will need to find one that went against the plaintiff and vice versa. The following link may help with your research: Fire Law Blog. Click the link and once on the page, use the search feature located in the upper right-hand corner. Also, using Google with a few keywords should help you to find the needed court cases.