ABSTRACT
Criminal procedure law sets forth the appropriate behavior for the police, as agents of the state, as they investigate possible criminal activity. The legal foundation for most criminal procedural decisions is the United States Constitution, including the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment. During the 1960s the Supreme Court handed down a number of decisions involving an interpretation of the meaning of the Fourth Amendment. The competing sets of values that each of the actors brings to table—and that are found at all other stages of the criminal justice process as well—have been described by Herbert Packer as the crime control and due process perspectives. Packer’s models of the criminal process are just that—models, and not depictions of reality. According to crime control model, efficiency is key to the effective operation of the criminal process. Whereas the crime control model views the criminal process as an assembly line, the due process model sees the process as an obstacle course.
