The body cavity search is a very specific tool used by law enforcement to locate contraband and other illegal items, despite being often the subject of jokes in fictional media. Searches can be conducted in the oral, rectal, and anal cavities, the digestive tract, sexual organs, ears, and nostrils.
A search like this is not a comfortable experience and should only be conducted by law enforcement personnel with the appropriate training and under the proper legal circumstances. The following is a brief primer on situations where a body cavity search might be performed, as well as legal guidelines that protect a person’s rights.
How Are Body Cavity Searches Defined?
Body cavity searches involve visual or manual examinations of the human body’s openings, cavities, and orifices. Each state has different laws regarding body cavity searches, but they are generally considered to be much more intrusive than strip searches or other types of police searches.
An agent may use a flashlight to inspect areas of the body normally hidden from plain sight during a visual body cavity search. In addition, they can see openings in the body, such as in the ears, nostrils, or rectum. Unlike visual body searches, manual body searches may involve touching, insertion, or probing, as well as the use of medical detecting devices.
What Circumstances Require a Body Cavity Search?
Due to their intrusive nature, these searches are only used in certain circumstances, mostly at border crossings and airports, to prevent drug smugglers from bringing quantities of drugs into the country. It is common for someone (usually called a mule) to wrap drugs in plastic or rubber, insert them or ingest them, and pass and retrieve them later.
Local, state, or federal officials who have jurisdiction over the investigation in a domestic criminal case may also perform body cavity searches. Among the items they search for are illegal drugs and drug paraphernalia, weapons, money, and other illegal items. A body cavity search may turn into an emergency surgery if a person has dangerous substances in their body and cannot get them out with less intrusive methods.
When Can Law Enforcement Force a Body Cavity Search?
A body cavity search can be conducted in three situations:
- Search Warrant: Like other searches, a body cavity search falls under the Constitutional purview of the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits “unreasonable search and seizures.” Many Supreme Court cases over the years have examined what constitutes reasonableness and what does not. Whether or not a search warrant (a body cavity or not) is legal depends on proving probable cause.
- Obtaining a search warrant requires investigators to prove to a judge that the search is reasonable and the state’s interests are. Judges are often only willing to approve body cavity searches if there are no other less invasive means of accomplishing the same goal. As a result of this rule, even valid, judge-signed warrants have been thrown out on appeal.
- Border/Ports of Entry: When a person crosses into the United States via a border crossing or port of entry like an airport, no search warrant is necessary to make a body cavity search legal. These searches are subject to a much lower burden of proof than those that require a search warrant. To put it simply, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and border patrol agents need no warrant or probable cause to conduct a body cavity search if they think one is necessary.
- Upon Incarceration: Corrections officers have more latitude to conduct body cavity searches than the average law enforcement professional. The courts have declared a special exception to the normal reasonableness standard for warrants to prevent weapons from entering dangerous places such as prisons.
When Is a Body Cavity Search Considered “Intrusive”?
A body cavity search can be considered intrusive in many ways. Here are a few examples:
- Violation of Privacy Rights: Police generally need a search warrant to conduct a body cavity search. Each person has a “reasonable expectation of privacy” regarding their own body, so the police’s suspicion must go beyond this expectation. An international border search, for example, does not require a search warrant.
- Incorrect Application of Procedure: The search must employ only those absolutely necessary procedures to accomplish the goals of the search. It is common to perform a manual inspection when a visual search would have sufficed. Sanitation standards must also be adhered to.
- Location of the Search: The search needs to occur in a place that is not visible to the public. The search cannot be visible to anyone who isn’t essential for conducting the body cavity search, even authorized agents. Searches should only be viewed by those who need to see them.
- Less Invasive Means: Regardless of the type of body cavity search involved, a body cavity search may be considered intrusive if it is performed when there is a less invasive means of search involved, such as an x-ray procedure.
The evidence obtained from a body cavity search will likely be excluded from a criminal trial if it is found to be overly intrusive. In order to comply with body cavity search laws, authorities must follow strict standards and use alternative methods if possible.
Who Can Be Present at a Body Cavity Search?
Besides these body search locations, the search must also take place in a private area that is not visible to the public. If they are not needed or are not participating in the search, other police or inspection agents should not be present during the search. Medical sanitation standards must be strictly adhered to. Physicians typically conduct more intrusive manual searches as well.
A body cavity search can only be conducted with a limited number of people present. Authorities sometimes allow a specific person to attend a search when a suspect requests it.
What Is a “Non-Routine” Body Cavity Search?
Based on the set of circumstances and facts of the situation, a non-routine body cavity search may be conducted. A cursory search of the body cavity of an inmate admitted to prison, jail, or psychiatric ward would be considered routine. A search warrant is usually not required for a routine body cavity search.
Individuals entering a department store, school, or other similar institution are not routinely searched for their body cavity. Non-routine searches of body cavities in such places will likely require a search warrant.
What Is the Legal Standing of Body Cavity Searches?
According to some inmates and human rights activists, the purpose of body cavity searches is not so much to stop contraband as to harass and humiliate detainees. A naked eye cannot see objects buried deep inside the rectum. Manual body cavity searches can also be circumvented.
Occasionally, suspects swallow condom-protected packages of drugs and allow them to pass through their digestive tracts. The body cavity search will be invalidated if diagnostic imaging reveals concealed contraband. As visual and manual cavity searches are highly invasive and compromise an individual’s right to privacy, their legality is often disputed.
Do I Need a Lawyer for Help with Body Cavity Search Issues?
The search of body cavities should be conducted in a way that minimizes the amount of intrusion on the suspect’s body. You may wish to hire a criminal lawyer if you need help with legal issues involving body cavity searches.
In addition to advising you on your rights, your attorney can represent you in your case. Per your state’s laws, a qualified attorney can help determine your legal options.
