Searches incident to a lawful arrest

Search incident to a lawful arrest, commonly known as search incident to arrest (SITA) or the Chimel rule, is a 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, and the destruction of evidence.

In most cases, a search warrant pursuant to the Fourth Amendment is required to perform a lawful search; an exception to this requirement is SITA. In Harris v. United States (1947), the United States Supreme Court held that an officer was permitted to perform a warrantless search during or immediately after a lawful arrest of the arrestee and their premises, regardless of what the arrest was for. In United States v. Rabinowitz (1950), the court narrowed its ruling to searches of the area within the arrestee's "immediate control." In Chimel v. California (1969), the Court further limited the exception to the person arrested and the area within their immediate control "in order to remove any weapons that the [arrestee] might seek to use in order to resist arrest or effect his escape" and to prevent the "concealment or destruction" of evidence.

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