The key legal aspects of police work all stem from the language in the US Constitution, which provides for "due process" in the enforcement of federal and state criminal law statutes by sworn members of law enforcement agencies. Due process is the standard that supports the rule of law and the basis for the social compact by which citizens voluntary accept and cooperate with the presence and purpose of law enforcement agencies. The principles of due process were derived from clause 39 of the Magna Carta in England, which stated:
"No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land."
In the US Bill of Rights, the Fourth and Fifth Amendments shape the key legal aspects of police work in practice.
The Fourth Amendment states:
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
Put simply, the police can't just randomly search a person's home or go into someone's pockets in the hopes that the person may have property on his or her person that is illegal to possess under the law. The Fourth Amendment created the requirement that a law enforcement agent must be able to articulate exactly why the person should be arrested or the person's property be searched for contraband for a warrant to be issued. Probable Cause is the set of facts and circumstances that would lead a reasonable and prudent person to conclude that a crime has been committed and that a certain person committed it. Probable cause must be clearly detailed within the text of an arrest warrant for a person, or a search warrant for a place, for police to lawfully execute the warrant. The elements of probable cause are the same for arrest and search warrants when the suspect(s) involved are adults or juveniles.
The Sixth Amendment ensures that:
"No person...shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law..."
The Supreme Court based its 1966 decision in Miranda v. Arizona on the Sixth Amendment when it created the requirement that defendants must be informed of their rights to an attorney and against self-incrimination prior to custodial interrogation by police.
The element of the Miranda Warning that has risen to prominence in the case of custodial interrogations of juveniles is an emphasis on the defendant's level of certainty and capacity to understand the rights as explained to him or her by police. It can be argued that juveniles, in general, have a limited ability based on their age and experience to make informed decisions about their best interests, especially when engaged by adults to whose authority they are generally expected to defer under normal circumstances such as in school or during coached sports. Although duly advised of the right to have a lawyer present during questioning or to not answer any questions without one, it would be unlikely that the average person of minority age would understand this right without having it carefully explained to him or her by the interviewer in terms that he or she could relate to by prior experience or age-appropriate context.
Police organizations that have the ability and resources to electronically record their interviews of detained juvenile suspects with both video and audio features enabled are wise to do so to support the assertion that the defendant, by recorded explicit statement and through visible demeanor, well understood his or her options. The level of training that professional forensic interviewers receive to communicate effectively with children and juveniles as witnesses and victims may someday be the model for police investigators in the interviewing of detained juvenile suspects.
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