ABSTRACT
Bus searches have become a common tactic employed by law enforcement officials in their efforts to combat drug trafficking. These searches, or sweeps, are typically of intercity buses traveling on known drug routes and are conducted at normally scheduled bus stops. Such searches require the courts to balance law enforcement's interests in effective drug interdiction with bus passengers' expectations of privacy. The Court explicitly considered whether bus sweeps are by their nature nonconsensual in Florida v. Bostick, 501 US 429. Terrance Bostick sought to suppress as evidence in his trial cocaine that was found in his luggage when law enforcement officers searched it during a bus trip from Miami, Florida, to Atlanta, Georgia. Whereas law enforcement agents are free to pose questions to individuals such as bus passengers in the absence of reasonable suspicion, absence of it obligates law enforcement to abide by the Supreme Court's rulings with regard to permission to conduct a search.
