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Hey guys, it's Anthony Bandiero here with blue to gold Law Enforcement Training bring you another roadside chat. This question is is can you look inside a woman's purse, or a man's backpack during a pat down?

The answer is maybe. So here's, here's how this works. So we know that pat downs are, you know, an overall minimally intrusive way to protect yourself from weapons and blunt objects during a Terry stop. And if you have reason to believe that the person is either armed or dangerous, you can pat the person down for weapons. As far as

purses and backpacks go, if you can also articulate that you believe that the weapon could be in there, then what the courts want to see is that you start from the outside and only go into the container, the backpack or purse, if you cannot effectively pat the item down from the outside. So literally, what I would like to see in your reports, if you are doing this on a purse, for example, is that, you know, you articulate that the purse is thick sided, it's not conducive to a pat down, therefore, you opened it up, and only did those things necessary to find a weapon, blunt object, knife, and so forth. You know, again, you're not looking for evidence. Now, if you see evidence, in plain view, it is going to come in, but the courts do want, especially when you're doing something a little bit non traditional as looking inside containers, they're gonna want to make sure that you're on the up and up, and not using this as a as a, as a ruse to get into people's, you know, backpacks, and so forth. So that's the rule you if they have access, and also that they have access to it, right. So typically, when people are detained, they,

you know, either they can be handcuffed or not, but usually they still have, or will have access to those places. So if you stop somebody for potentially being involved in an armed robbery, and you pat that person down, and they're carrying a backpack, you know, most cops are probably going to pat down the backpack as well, because that's where the gun would be right? If they if you have

evidence that they actually use a firearm, while if you've Terry stop them, they probably have a firearm on them somewhere. And if it's not on there person, it's likely in that backpack. So start from the outside, if you can effectively do that, you unzip it, and just look for the gun, and then you secure the gun and you go from there. That's the rule on containers associated with pat downs. I hope this helps. Again, you gotta do me a favor, you got to subscribe. And like that gives me the feedback that I need. Also, if you want legal updates, go to my website, blue to gold calm and you'll see you know, sign up for legal updates. And don't forget the live training, right? This is just a small piece of it. I'm going to give you a small piece of go to bluetogold.com, look at a training calendar and see if there's a class that you can attend online or in person. You want to see the whole shebang right I do this I do three days of search and seizure training, which makes cops experts in the law. Until next time, stay safe.