301495

ORANGE COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE GENERAL ORDER Effective Date: August 26, 2025  Amends GO 7.1.1 ( February 18, 2025 ) Number: 7.1.1 Distribution: All Personnel Review Month: June Reviewing Authority: Sheriff / Legal Services Subject: Detention Arrest And Search Procedures This order consists of the following: 1. Purpose 2. Policy 3. Definitions 4. Procedures 1. Purpose The purpose of this policy is to establish lawful detention, arrest, and search procedures that support successful prosecutions. 2. Policy Agency personnel shall employ efficient and effective detention, arrest, and search procedures that are in accordance with applicable law and agency directives, and that are respectful of individual rights. 3. Definitions A. Arrest - to deprive a person of his or her liberty by legal authority. Taking custody of another to bring him or her before a court of proper jurisdiction. B. Consensual Citizen Encounter - a deputy engages a citizen in conversation with the citizen's consent. The deputy has no reasonable suspicion or probable cause that the person is involved in criminal activity. The citizen is free to summarily withdraw his or her consent, ignore the deputy's questions, and walk away. C. Consent Search - search made by deputies after the subject of the search has consented. Such consent, if freely and intelligently given, will validate a warrantless search. D. Frisk - a pat-down of a suspect by a deputy, designed to discover weapons for the purpose of confirming safety of the deputy and others nearby, and not to recover contraband or other evidence for use at subsequent trial. E. Inventory Search – An itemized search of an arrestee’s vehicle or effects to document the presence of possessions for the purpose of: (1) protecting the owner’s property while it remains in police custody; (2) documenting the property in case of claims of lost, stolen, or damaged property; and (3) protecting the deputy and the community against dangerous instrumentalities. GO 7.1.1, Page 2 of 17 F. Investigatory Field Stop ("Terry" stop) - temporary detention based upon reasonable suspicion that the subject has committed, is committing, or is about to commit a violation of law. The detention is to investigate the suspicious circumstances and ascertain the person’s identity. G. Probable Cause - facts and circumstances within a deputy's knowledge, and of which he or she has reasonably trustworthy information sufficient in itself to warrant a person of reasonable caution to believe that an offense has been or is being committed. It is not necessary that the deputy possess knowledge of facts sufficient to establish guilt, but more than mere suspicion is required. H. Reach -in Search – an officer with probable cause to arrest pulls the suspect’s pants and underwear away from his or her body at the waist area to look for evidence of the alleged crime (e.g., illegal drugs in a sale and delivery case). The officer’s other attempts at search did not reveal the evidence. The officer does not touch the suspect’s private body parts, and the suspect’s clothing is not manipulated or removed in such a way that his or her private body parts are publicly exposed. The officer takes steps to diminish the potential invasion of the suspect’s privacy, such as moving to the uninhabited side of a buildi ng. This is different than a strip search. Jenkins v. State , 978 So.2d 116 (Fla. 2008). I. Reasonable Suspicion - knowledge sufficient to induce an ordinarily prudent and cautious deputy to believe criminal activity is at hand. It must be based on specific and articulable facts which, taken together with rational inferences from those facts, reasonably warrant intrusion. J. Search Incident to Arrest - when a lawful arrest is made, a deputy may search the person arrested and the area within the person's immediate presence for the purpose of protecting the deputy from attack, discovering the fruits of a crime, or preventing the person from escaping or destroying eviden ce. The deputy may seize all instruments, articles, or things discovered on the person arrested or within the person's immediate control, the seizure of which is reasonably necessary to protect the deputy from attack, prevent the person's escape, or confirm subsequent lawful custody of the fruits of a crime or the articles used in the commission of a crime. K. Strip Search - remove or arrange some or all of a person's clothing so as to permit a visual or manual inspection of the genitals, buttocks, anus, breasts in the case of a female, or undergarments of such person. FS 901.211 governs strip searches. 4. Procedures A. The three basic scenarios where deputies contact citizens to gather information or take law enforcement action are Consensual Citizen Encounter, Investigatory Field Stop, and Arrest. 1. Consensual Citizen Encounters - Deputies should be mindful during a Consensual Citizen Encounter to not do or say anything that may induce the citizen to reasonably believe they must answer