SAN DIEGO DISTRICT ATTORNEY The Fourth Amendment and ...

P.C. § 4030(f): Unless, and until, a person (or
minor, prior to a detention hearing), arrested for an
infraction or misdemeanor, is moved into the
general jail population (see subd. (g) for the
prerequisites for moving a person arrested for an
infraction or misdemeanor into the general
population), he or she may not be subjected to a
“strip search” or a “visual body cavity search”
unless:
The offense for which he or she was arrested
involved weapons, controlled substances, or
violence; or
A peace officer has a “reasonable
suspicion,” based upon articulable facts, that
the person is concealing a weapon or
contraband and a strip search will result in
the discovery of the weapon or contraband.
No strip search or visual body cavity
search may be conducted without
prior written authorization of the
supervising officer on duty, with
such authorization specifying the
articulable facts and circumstances
upon which the reasonable suspicion
determination was made by the
supervisor.
An arrest for the misdemeanor offense of
being under the influence of a controlled
substance, per H&S § 11550, does not
justify a later visual body cavity search at
the jail prior to being taken into the general
jail population, despite this statute to the
contrary, absent any specific articulable
facts amounting to a reasonable suspicion
that the arrestee does in fact possess a
controlled substance. (Way v. County of
Ventura (2006) 445 F.3 rd 1157.)
© 2011 Robert C. Phillips. All rights reserved
P.C. § 4030(h): No person (nor a minor, prior to a
disposition hearing) arrested for an infraction or a
misdemeanor offense shall be subjected to a
“physical body cavity search” except under the
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