Searches incident to a lawful arrest

Search incident to a lawful arrest, commonly known as search incident to arrest (SITA) or the Chimel rule (from Chimel v. California), is an American legal principle that allows police to perform a warrantless search of an arrested person and the area within the arrestee’s immediate control in the interest of officer safety, the prevention of escape or the preservation of evidence.

Such searches are exceptions to the usual practice of obtaining a search warrant pursuant to the Fourth Amendment.

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