When William Bembury was arrested, the police took it upon themselves to conduct a thorough search of his backpack without a warrant. But by the time the search occurred, Mr. Bembury was handcuffed and the backpack was secured away from him. Mr. Bembury argued that the warrantless search of his backpack violated the Fourth Amendment and that any evidence found as a result of that search must be suppressed; but on appeal, the Kentucky Supreme Court disagreed and upheld the search as a valid search incident to arrest. The search incident to arrest exception permits limited, warrantless searches of the arrestee's person and the area within his immediate control in order to disarm the arrestee and prevent the destruction or concealment of evidence. But in its decision below, the Kentucky Supreme Court disregarded the limited application of this exception and empowered police to conduct warrantless searches of virtually any physical item found with the arrestee.
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