Search warrants are no longer required for the police to search people who are on probation and parole in South Carolina. What that means is this. Probation and Parole Officers have always had the right to search those who are on probation and parole. Now with the new law, the same authority that they have is now extended to police officers and sheriff's deputies. They now no longer need to go to a judge for a search warrant. This means that they can exercise this authority with someone on the street who is on probation or parole and they are allow to search them just like a probation or parole officer can.
Opponents are up in arms over this new law, argue an erosion of our constitution. Those who support it, say that this is an additional measure of safety and will greatly help against repeat offenders.
The police are not just restricted to those they see on the street. They can pull people over and search their cars. They can even search their personal possessions, for example purses. The new law does not allow the police to search their homes without a valid search warrant. One other catch is that inmates serving time must agree to this before they are let out on parole. If they don't, then they will be required to serve their full prison term.
One restriction on the police, is that they must have reasonable suspicion of some sort of wrongdoing before conducting such a search. The officer must first verify that the person is in fact on probation or parole. Violations of this procedure would subject the officer to discipline policies. That provision has been criticized for being too vague. Further arguments and more significant, are concerns of the law being susceptible to racial profiling and other abuse.
One of the arguments that are in favor of the new law, is that it will help in controlling those on probation and parole. South Carolina has approximately 16,000 police officers and sherrif's 's deputies. However, it only has 342 probation and parole agents throughout SC. That means that 342 agents are required to supervise about 44,000 people on probation and parole. There are even some counties with just a single agent. Here in Horry County and Myrtle Beach, we have a large number of police and sheriff deputies compared to the rest of the state. Nevertheless, there are still thousands of people in Horry County and Myrtle Beach that are on probation and parole.
Written by Attorney Robert J. Johnston. Free Consultation. 843-828-1137.
