Fred Heineman: “Mr. Chairman, we hear the talk about the exclusionary rule, and I do not think we have had much dialog about the warrant…”

“Mr. Chairman, we hear the talk about the exclusionary rule, and I do not think we have had much dialog about the warrant search, the search under the authority of a warrant, other than having Leon explain to us on two occasions. What we are really talking about is we are really talking about the warrantless search. Leon did not speak to the warrantless search, but warrantless search is basically what this exclusionary rules points up. Warrantless searches are searches performed by police officers at the scenes of a provocation, so to speak, a situation where the exigencies of the service require a police officer to act. Police officers do not have with them the luxury of a law library to look up in the library as to what is legal and what is illegal. They have their own instincts, they have their own practices, and they have their own good common sense. Nor do they have a boardroom to caucus their contemplated actions before making an arrest or a search. They have to again rely on their experience and precedent. Of course we can talk about officers in 1910 or we could talk about officers in 1995, the training and those that are not trained. I submit that officers in 1995 are better trained than officers at any other time in the history of law enforcement in this country.”