Culpeper Gun Investigations

When there is an investigation for gun charges in Culpeper, a person needs to remember they have certain rights during the course of the process. For example, a person’s vehicle can be searched for guns but only if the police have probable cause or some other circumstance that permits them to search one’s vehicle. For example, if a person is placed under arrest for some other reason and that person was in their vehicle at that time, the police will have a right to search the vehicle.

Start of An Investigation

If a person is lawfully placed under arrest, then police are allowed to do a search of that person to determine if there are weapons or other contraband. That is perhaps the most common way that investigation occurs. In addition to that, if there is any evidence that a person is armed and concealing a weapon, such as a bulge in their pocket or jacket, the police are allowed to conduct what it is called the Terry Stop and Frisk, which allows them simply to determine whether there are weapons present. The rationale for this is police safety. However, this is a police technique that it is often used to conduct a search of an individual where actual probable cause, which is that higher standard, may not exist.

If police have other reliable information that leads them to believe that there are illegal weapons in a person’s vehicle, that could lead to a search and, of course, any time that the police believe they have a probable cause for a search and can obtain a search warrant from a magistrate, that will entitle them to search their vehicle for weapons.

Steps to Take

The second that a person knows that they are being investigated for a gun charge in Culpeper, they should get in contact with a lawyer. There are innumerable ways that a defendant can make their case worse for themselves by interacting with police. Police frequently will mislead people and make promises that they have no intention of keeping. They often tell that they just want to talk, that they are not looking to charge them, that they are simply collecting information, or that they just want to meet them briefly.

These things frequently turn out to not be true and the person then finds themselves interacting with skilled police officers who are trained to get people to make confessions or do or say other things that will incriminate them. Someone who is under investigation should never undertake an encounter like that in any circumstance without the benefit of counsel who can protect their rights during a gun investigation in Culpeper.

Talking to an attorney is going to help a person understand not to talk to the police. It is also going to help a person to understand what proactive steps a person might be taking for their defense of their rights, what evidence a person might collecting, and an entire universe of actions, which may help their case early on.